Feel Again
by Real.Smile
Summary: They were High School Sweethearts. They were so in love. Until the accident that is. Then he turned to ice, he withdrew from her. Then she had to leave. However, when he runs into her nine months later, her presence stirs something in him. His friends notice. His brothers notice. He's thawing, his hard exterior melting. With her, he can feel again. Rated T for violence (abuse).
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Hey there! So I've been sitting on this plot for a while, and I finally got the muse to write it. So I hope that you enjoy it. Please review, I love reviews! Also, all spelling and grammar error are my own. Sorry!

**DISCLAIMER:**So I don't own _The Outsiders_, all the characters with the exception of my original characters belong to S.E Hinton, not to me.

* * *

The sun was setting through the dark grey clouds, signaling the end of Darell Curtis' second shift. He turned his eyes upward towards the sky and sighed. After tightening is tool belt, he descended the ladder and touched his boots to the ground. He stretched a bit, attempting to loosen the tense muscles in his back, however, the attempt was in vain. He'd have to ask his brother to work out the knots in his back when he got home. After clocking out, Darell started off towards his bark blue Ford pickup. With his keys in hand, he opened the door and placed his keys in the ignition. After a few times of attempting to start the car, the engine turned over and the truck roared to life. He reminded himself to get Steve to look at that at some point.

As Darell pulled out on to the street and on his way home, he looked up at the sky. He hoped that the rain would hold out until he got home. Sodapap had yet to replace his windshield wipers, so he had none at the moment. However, the grey clouds that had been threatening to burst all day, and he knew that the rain would not hold out much longer. He'd gotten about a half a mile down the road before the rain started to fall. At first it was a light drizzle, only spotting the windshield. However, he knew that soon the rain would come and that it wouldn't be safe for him to be out on the road. He sighed as he pulled over into a diner parking lot, and parked near the door. The man brought his index finger and middle finger to his temple. Honestly, he'd just wanted to go home and attempt to relax, but that wasn't going to happen right then. He stepped out of the truck and walked into the diner.

The diner was seat yourself, so Darell picked a booth beside the window. That was he could watch the truck, and listen to the rain. The rain was peaceful and calming in a sense. It washed everything away. The red pleather seating on the booth was torn and the yellow cushioning was visible on the seat of the booth the Darell selected. An older waitress brought him a menu and sat it on the black table before him, after doing so she told him that she would return in a moment. Absentmindedly, he flipped through the menu, already knowing that he wanted. He wasn't going to order any food, but he could go for some coffee. When the waitress returned, he told her exactly that. A coffee, black. Just as the waitress took the menu from him there was a clap of thunder and the rain started to fall.

The waitress returned and sat the cup of black coffee in front of him. Darell thanked her quietly before she walked off to another table. He sipped on his drink, letting it warm him. His eyes stayed on the window, watching the rain fall. The rain falling usually soothed people, however all Darell could think about was if Soda had remember to put the bucket under the crack in the living room ceiling. He had been meaning to patch it up, but there just hadn't been anytime to do that. There just weren't enough hours in the day. However, he was going to have to make time to do it. They couldn't go on living with a leak in the ceiling. He ran his fingers through his dark hair as the rain continued to fall. His hand came to rest over his blue-green eyes as he sighed.

Things had been rough all over. It had been two months since Dallas and Johnny died. It had been almost a ten months since his parents passed. The amount of loss that he, his family, and his friends had experienced in the past ten months had been crazy. With the death of his parent and him being the oldest, he had to step up and be the parent. That meant giving up the life that he'd known for one that was foreign to him. Then just as he felt that he was kind of getting a hold on things, Dallas and Johnny died. And there was no way that he could replace either one of them, even if he had wanted to.

He lifted his cup up to take another sip of his coffee, only to find that the cup was empty. He turned his attention to the window, see that the rain had all but stopped. When he looked down at the watch on his wrist, he saw that he'd been sitting there for almost forty-five minutes. Darell cursed under his breath as he reached into his pocket and let the payment for his coffee and a tip. He waved and thanked the waitress as he stood as started towards the door.

In his rush, he didn't see the figure walking towards the door, and as a result he ran straight into the figure. Immediately, he reached out to grab the person. His large hand grasped at the persons waist, a female waist. Darell pulled her upright and held her as she gained her bearings.

"I'm sorry," he told her as he dropped his hand from her waist and cast an apologetic smile in her direction.

The girl in front of him sighed, and attempted to brush her wet brown hair from her eyes. Darell watched her as she struggled. Her dark hair was plastered to her forehead, she gotten caught in the rain, and her soaked clothes proved his assumption correct. She'd gotten the hair of her forehead and out of her eyes. She had faded freckles across the bridge of her nose. Her hazel eyes flicked up to his blue-green ones and a soft smile crossed her pink bow-shaped lips. Darell found himself speechless. Stunned, even. Her eyebrow arched and she seemed to shirk away from the intensity of his stare.

"Jacquelyn Ross?" he choked out.

The brunette's eyebrow arched even higher and her smile faltered as she looked at the man in front of her. However, after a moment, her eyes lit up and her smile returned. Her arms flung around his neck as she embraced him. He had no choice but to return it. Not that he would have made any other decision. The scent of citrus filled his nose. It was her scent after all. When she pulled back, the smile was still on her lips. "Darell Curtis," she said brightly. "What are you doing here?"

"Staying out of the rain," he answered. "However, I see that you haven't been so lucky, Jacquelyn," he told her as he gestured to her wet clothes.

"You're hilarious," she stated with a dry laugh. "Nah, my car broke down on the way back from work a block that way," she said as he pointed up the road. "Just looking for a place to call a tow truck." She brushed her hair from her eyes quickly and tilted her head. "You coming or going?" she questioned as she gestured to the dinner.

Darell hesitated for a moment. "I was leaving. I can give you a ride home if you want," he suggested.

Her hazel eyes brightened. "Really? I don't wanna put you out or nothing."

Darell shook his head and stepped out of the doorway. "It's no bother. Really. You don't need to pay for a tow truck, Jacquelyn."

"Well, okay. If I'm not putting you out," she stated again.

The man shook his head as he led her to his truck. He reached it before her and opened the door. She teased him about being a gentleman, but thanked him before he closed the door. When he reached the driver's side and opened the door, he saw her running her fingers through her dark hair and humming to herself. He climbed into the car and started the engine after two tries.

"You know, you're the only person that's ever called me that?" she questioned as they pulled out on to the street.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Jacquelyn," she told him. "No one calls me that but you."

"It's your name, isn't it?" he asked her. She rolled her eyes and sat back in the seat, deciding that it was better to not acknowledge that he'd asked that question. There was a silence between them as he slowed at a red light. In that silence, he tried to keep the thoughts of their past away. "What are you doing back in Tulsa?" he asked unable to keep his curiosity at bay.

The light in her eyes faltered at his question, and suddenly he regretted asking her. However, before he could say anything about it she'd started to answer his question. "My parents divorced. I decided to come back with my dad, because this is more home that Wisconsin could ever be." Something about what she said struck him as odd. He'd never known Jacquelyn to be able to completely answer a question that was asked of her in two sentences. She was a talker, always had been. Yet, she'd given him a through answer in two sentences.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he told her as they passed another red light.

"It's okay. It was a long time coming," she told him.

"Jacquelyn, where am I going?" he inquired.

"Um," the brunette stalled as she looked around her attempting to get her bearings. "Um, left." He did as told. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Darell asked.

"Right," she told him as he came to a stop sign. "What are you up to?"

"The same old, same old," he replied. After a moment, he said, "You living in the same house?"

The girl beside him laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I am." She wrapped a strand of her hair around her finger. "How'd you remember that?"

Darell shrugged as he pulled into the driveway of her place. It was a small white house. There were two windows on the front for the house, both covered by closed blinds. The yard was small, but well-manicured. On the side of the door was the number 25. Just like it he remembered it. "I just do." He looked over into her light eyes and then ran his fingers through his hair. "I can have someone look at your car tomorrow for free," he told her.

"Really?" she questioned excitedly as she eyes lit up.

"Yeah."

"Well, let me give you my number," she told him. "And my keys." She reached into her wet pocket and pulled out her car key. Her fingers quickly detached her house key from the key ring.

Darry took the key and pocketed it before pointing to the dashboard. "There should be a pen and a napkin in the dash." She leaned forward and opened the dashboard. He watched as her slender fingers wrapped around the pen and her bubbly handwriting covered the napkin. After she'd finished, she handed the napkin to him with a bright smile. "I'll be in touch. You working tomorrow?"

"Nah, I'm off. So I'll be around." Jacquelyn opened her door and slipped out of the seat. Just before she closed the door, she turned and smiled at him. "Thank you, Dare," she told him. "I really appreciate it."

"It's not a problem," he told her.

"I'm glad that I ran into you," she told him before closing the door and walking to her front door. He watched as she unlocked the door and turned to wave at him. He gave a small have back, and she disappeared into the house.

* * *

The brunette pressed her back to the door as she heard Darell's truck back out of the driveway. She slid down the door and sighed. That had been completely unexpected. She hadn't expected to run into him. She covered her eyes with her hands as she tried to calm her racing heart. Her heart had been racing since she ran into him at the diner. She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, trying to take her mind off the events that had just occurred.

"Jackie, is that you?"

That would work. She flicked her hazel eyes upwards and looked towards the living room. She started to hear the television noise in the background. She could hear her father's breathing. She could smell the alcohol. The girl attempted to blow a strand of her wet hair from her face and sighed.

"Yeah, it's me. Who else would it be?"

"You getting smart with me?" her father shot back.

"No, sir," the dark hair girl told him as she stood up and locked the door.

"Better not be," he grumbled, as she walked past him. "Why are you all wet?"

"Car broke down, dad," she replied. "I had to walk a block in the rain to find a place to call a tow."

Something dropped on to the floor. "You paid for a tow truck?" her father questioned. "We ain't got that kind of money, Jackie. You know that. I don't need you wasting the money we got on a tow truck. You coulda walked here just fine."

Jacquelyn looked over at her father. He was stretched out on the torn sofa with a bottle of beer in his hand, and three or four around him. The thing that had fallen to the floor had been a shot glass. On the table before him was a bottle of what looked like whiskey. On the television was some sort of sports channel. Jacquelyn couldn't quite make out what the man on the television was saying, but then again what did she care about the man on television. She slowly ran her fingers through her dark hair so not to catch any knots on the way and sighed. "I didn't call a tow. I ran into a friend and got a ride home from them." Her father grumbled something as she turned to walk down the hall.

"Jackie!"

"Yes?"

"Get me another beer."

The brunette turned on her heel and headed towards the kitchen. She opened the white refrigerator and saw that the fridge was damn near empty. There were two eggs, a nearly empty bottle of soda, a few oranges, and some cheese. However, there were two cases of beer. She sighed as she reached into one of the cases and grabbed an ice cold beer from the case. Her hazel eyes looked over the empty fridge, and she made a mental note to get something to eat tomorrow after she got her car back. Just a few things to hold them over until she got her paycheck next week. Some bread and eggs and milk. The basics. She handed the beer to her father, and he grumbled a thank you as she walked away towards her bedroom.

Jacquelyn pushed her bedroom door open and closed it behind her before flinging herself on to her head. She closed her eyes as she buried her face into the navy blue pillow on her bed. The brunette exhaled slowly, finally letting her heart rate settle. She then rolled over so that she was looking upward at the popcorn ceiling above her. No matter how hard she tied not to, she thought of him. She thought of him and that she was going to get to see him tomorrow. The girl sat up and she kicked her shoes off, letting them fall to the floor with a loud thud, and then started peeling away her wet work clothes. She then grabbed her pajamas and wrapped her towel around her before she started to make her way to the bathroom for a shower.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: ** Thanks for the reviews! I decided to post this entry a little early due to the amount of positive feedback, by means of reviews. I already had this one written so I thought, why not? I'm really glad that people are liking how the story is going already. In this chapter we get a glimpse, a very short glimpse, of how Darry and Jacquelyn used to be. When I says short, I do mean short, but it's something. I'm going to try to start weaving in their past into the story soon. Thanks for reading, and please review. All spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors are my own, and I apologize for them.

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own _The Outsiders_.

* * *

_Ring, Ring._

Jacquelyn Ross tumbled off of the torn brown sofa and on to the cold floor. Apparently, she'd dozed off laying on the sofa and the phone had startled her out of her sleep. Jacquelyn groaned as she sat up and looked down that linoleum floor under her. As the phone rang again, she swept her thick brown hair from her eyes and reached up for the phone.

"Hey, this is Jacquelyn," she said after she'd brought the receiver to her ear. The brunette pushed herself off of the floor and lowered herself on to the unsteady arm of the sofa.

"Hey, it's Darry," the voice on the other end of the line replied. Jacquelyn's heart beat speed up a little, and a small smile played on her lips. He called. "Did I wake you up?"

Did she sound like she was asleep? Jacquelyn rubbed her eyes and gave a soft laugh. "Not really. I think I dozed off on the sofa." She wrapped the phone cord around her index finger, "What can I do you for?"

"It's about your car," Darry replied. Jacquelyn sighed deeply. "No, it's not bad. It's fine. The battery was dead, but we jumped it and it's at the DX now. New battery and all."

"Really?" Jacquelyn asked.

"Yeah, really. I can come and take you to it if you like."

"Now?"

The girl turned her eyes down to her current outfit. Her flannel blue and green pajama bottoms had so many holes in them that she would need all her fingers and some of her toes to count them. The drawstring was missing so they hung loosely on her waist and covered her small feet. Her white tee shirt she had on was too big as well. It was so worn that it had a constant look of being dirty, no matter how many times she washed or bleached it.

"Not if you aren't ready," Darry answered. There was a sudden commotion from on Darry's side of the line, and Jacquelyn's eyebrow arched as he covered the receiver and questioned the perpetrator. Jacquelyn attempted to retrieve her finger from the phone cord while she waited, but the task proved to be more difficult that she'd originally thought it to be. She'd wrapped the cord so tightly that it was cutting off the circulation causing her finger to turn red. "Sorry, Jacquelyn." On the other end of the line, she heard someone echo her name, and Darry shushed them. "What time would be good for you?"

Jacquelyn cast her eyes up towards the round clock on the wall. _10:26_. "Um, I can be ready at 11, 11:15," she said. "More like 11," she corrected, as she continued her attempts to retrieve her finger from the cord.

"I'll be over at 11," Darry replied. Jacquelyn agreed. "Hey, Jacquelyn?" he questioned to her.

"Yeah," she answered in her usual bubbly voice as she retrieved her finger from the cors.

"11," he stated firmly. "Not 11:10, 11."

There was a pause. "Whatever do you mean?" she questioned, pretending to be confused.

"You know what I mean."

Jacquelyn wasn't the most punctual person. Honestly, it usually came down to time getting away from her, or her falling into a daydream. It wasn't an intentional act. However, it was one of Darry's pet peeves. She vividly remembered him coming to get her and her taking an extra ten minutes or so, and when she would get to the car he would have his hands on the steering wheel with an angry look in his blue-green eyes.

The brunette laughed. "Alright, alright. I'll see you then." With those words, she hung up the phone.

Jacquelyn padded out of the living room and into her bathroom. She pulled her toothbrush from the white toothbrush holder, and placed a little bit of toothpaste on it. The girl then walked back onto the living room and sat on the arm of the sofa, it rocked under her weight and leaned to the side. With toothbrush in her mouth, she started brushing as she watched the clock, to ensure she got her full two minutes.

While she brushed, she thought about Darrel Curtis. She thought about how kind he had been to her when she ran into him the night before. How he'd offered her a ride home, even though he didn't have to do that. She thought about how since she'd been back in Tulsa everything seemed to been so backwards and upside down, but when she was with him it was like she'd never left. For the twenty minutes she was with him the night before, she felt like she had a nine months ago, before everything went haywire.

She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear as she stood of the arm of the sofa, pushing it back up to its original position with the outside of her thigh as she did, and headed towards the bathroom. After spitting the toothpaste out of her mouth and rising the brush, she washed her face. The brunette flicked off the bathroom light and headed to her bedroom while drying her face. Moving at a steady pace, she grabbed a pair of jean capris from her drawer. She tugged her torn pajama pants off as well as she underwear. After pulling on a clean pair of underwear, she pulled on the capris. Then the search for a shirt started. After a few moments of searching, she settled on a rose colored sleeveless shirt with a slightly tapered fit and with ruching at the shoulders. Her fingers quickly buttoned the four buttons and then flatted the round tipped collar.

As she headed out of her room, she pulled brown brush through her dark hair. She slipped into the kitchen and grabbed the bottle of soda and took a long sip out of it. She then capped it and slipped in back into the fridge. Then she pulled an orange out of the fridge and started to peel it over the trashcan. The brunette then started down the hall, peeling slices of the orange off as she did. Caught up in her orange eating, she didn't realize that her father was up and about and she ran right into him and dropped the remaining bits of the orange.

Shit.

Before she could so much a blink, her father and pushed her against the wall chest first with a dull _thud_. The breath was knocked out of her, and she gasped as she tried to get it back. Her father's hand was wrapped around her forearm and twisted her arm.

"Wasting food?" her father slurred. She tried to speak, but she was still catching her breath. "Answer me."

"No, I'm sorry," she gasped.

He released her from his grasp and she turned around quickly, cradling her wrist in her other hand with her back against the wall. He knelt down and picked the remainder of the orange off the floor. Without a word, he shoved the orange into her hands and walked away.

"Where are you going?" he questioned.

Jacquelyn took a moment to steady her breathing. "To get the car." She ran her fingers over the part of her forearm he'd grabbed. It was tender already, the bruising would come soon. She reached into her bedroom and grabbed a pair of shoes of the floor and tossed the orange into the trash can. "I'll be back."

She stepped out of the door with her shoes in her hand and exhaled shakily. The girl took a seat on the stoop and started to pull her shoes on. However, she found herself with her knees pulled to her chest, her arms crossed over her knees, and her head on her arms. She inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to bring her heart rate back down and cool her body. It wasn't until she felt the tears on her arm that she realized that she was crying.

"Jacquelyn," a voice called out to her.

Shit.

The girl quickly brushed away her tears and pulled on her other shoe, taking that time to look down at her forearm. The skin on her arm was still red, however since her complexion was paler, the red was an angry color. She swept her hair from her face and looked up at Darry Curtis. He'd gotten out of his truck and started walking towards her.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she replied as she smiled up at him.

Darrel didn't believe her for a second, but he knew better than to tell him that, or to question what she'd said. He looked at her for a long moment, taking her in. Her dark hair was a little out of place. Her hazel eyes were red. The ivory skin of her cheeks were red.

"Ready?" she questioned as she shrunk under the intensity of his stare.

"Yep," he replied. He'd started to offer his hand to her to assist her in standing up, but before he could she had sprung to her feet and was standing beside him. He led her to the car where he opened her door and let her climb in. As she did, something on her wrist caught his eye. Four small red marks on the top of her forearm and one larger one on the bottom. Her hazel eyes caught his blue-green ones as she quickly pulled her hand away. "Jacquelyn," he started slowly.

"It's nothing," she told him.

Darrel wasn't the type of person to just let things like that go. However, this, whatever it was, was not his place. He could have always pretended that he didn't' see the marks on her arm, but that wouldn't have been right. So he went with the middle ground. If she wanted to tell him, she would, she always had. Whatever she wanted him to know, she would tell him sooner or later. Hopefully, it would be sooner than later.

"Who did you get to fix my car?" the brunette asked him and she turned a little in her seat to face him.

"Steve."

"Randle?"

"Yeah. He and Soda work down at the DX," Darry explained to her as he flicked on his blinker. "You know, your car wasn't 'broken'?" he questioned using air quotes around the word broken.

"Did it stop working?" Jacquelyn asked as she arched her eyebrow.

"Yeah, but-"

"Did the engine turn over?" she inquired again.

"No, but it was-"

"Then the car was broken," she stated matter-of-factly.

"There's no arguing that logic is there?" Darry asked. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her shake her head. "Alright then." Darry was quiet for a moment. "They remember you."

"Well of course, I'm kind of unforgettable," she replied with a flip of her hair and a teasing smile on her lips. "But who are we talking about?"

"The gang. They remember you."

"It's only been ten months, give or take."

However, it had felt like much long than that for her. The days seemed to drag on and on. Her parents were constantly yelling at one another. Things were constantly shattering and being dropped. She was always having to talk her sister out of fits. She'd never felt so miserable in her life. However, it was at that time that she realized that it had been like that for as long as she could remember. Her parents had always been at one another's throats. She just wasn't always in the middle of it. She had places to go and friends to comfort her. In Wisconsin, there was none of that.

"Jacquelyn?" he called to her, pulled her from her thoughts. "You all right?"

"Golden," she replied. "What were you saying?"

Darry rolled his shoulders. "Just that they remember you, and Steve was more than happy to look at your car." She chuckled lightly beside him. "What?"

"Nothing," she answered as she twisted a strand of her dark hair around her finger. "And Sodapop and Ponyboy?"

It was Darry's turn to laugh. "Soda remembers you quite vividly. Ponyboy knows who you are, he recognizes you. Soda gave a pretty good description of youm when Ponyboy asked," a small smile crossed his lips. "If you ever go missing you'll want Soda to describe you." Jacquelyn laughed lightly. "When that didn't quite jog Pony's memory, Soda showed him a picture of you and me," Darry said as he shifted in his seat.

"Which picture?" the brunette asked curiously. There had to be a least a dozen good pictures of the two of them.

"The one from Homecoming senior year," he told her. He looked straight out of the windshield so that he didn't' have to meet her eye.

She remembered that picture. She remembered his parents taking that picture. It was right after Paul Holden scored the winning touchdown. Game was so close and when Paul ran across the goal line with thirty-five seconds left in the fourth quarter, the crowd went wild. The fans ran out on to the field after the clock ran out. She'd pushed her way down on to the field, not an easy task since she stood two inches above five feet. However, she'd managed to get off of the metal bleachers and on to the green grass of the football field. Her light eyes searched the crowd, and she stumbled right into the arms of the person she'd been searching for. The crowed was so loud and there was so much movement and cheering, but none of that seemed to matter to him. He'd kissed her soundly, right there on the forty yard line in front of everyone. Everything went silent when he kissed her, it was just the two of them standing on a football field. His parents, most likely his mother, snapped a picture of the two as he broke the kiss. The way that he looked in her in that picture was priceless. Jacquelyn always wondered how Mrs. Curtis had managed to get that picture. However, she'd never had the nerve, and then the chance, to ask.

"Yeah, I remember that picture," Jacquelyn mused. She bit the corner of her lips and exhale through her nose. "What about Dallas?"

Darry noticeably stiffened in his seat. Before Jacquelyn could ask what she'd said wrong, Darry started speaking. "Dallas died two months ago." Jacquelyn's breath hitched. Dallas Winston was dead. That sentence didn't even make sense to her. Dallas had always been so invincible. Or at least he seemed that way. Whenever, she was around him, he was so tuff like nothing could hurt him. "Johnny died too," Darry supplied. Her breath hitched again. Johnny Cade. She'd always liked him. She'd always wanted to protect him from everything, because he didn't' deserve the hard life that he had. He was dead. Sweet Johnny. Darry looked over at her in the rearview mirror. "Jacquelyn?"

"Hmm?" she hummed in response.

"Are you alright?" he questioned. She nodded. He saw the question forming on her plump lips and he sighed. "It's a long story, Jacquelyn. It a really long story." He didn't have the heart to tell her, but he honestly didn't know if he could tell her.

"Anyone else?"

"No."

He reply came as he pulled into the lot of the DX. Darry pulled along the side of the curb before parking the car. He ran his fingers though his dark hair. As Jacquelyn reached over to open her door, he reached across her and stopped her. Her light eyes turned to him as she pulled her hand on to her lap.

"You're not going to tell me?" he asked. Her eyebrow arched. "About your arm." Jacquelyn shook her head. "Alright." He released his hold on the car door and she hopped out of the cab.

He knew it wasn't any of his business. It really wasn't. He had so many things on his plate. The state was breathing down his neck, making sure the Ponyboy was being cared for properly. He had been attempting to get along with Ponyboy better. This meant not yelling at him so much, and letting him make him own decisions. Then there were the bills. They all needed to be paid, and he needed to find the money to do so. So taking on another thing wasn't feasible. Taking on her, whatever it was, would only weight him down. It just wasn't practical. Yet, he still felt so protective of her. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to do what he could. She was Jacquelyn Ross after all.

"Coming?" she questioned pulling him from his thoughts.

He nodded and pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Yeah."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Thank you for your reviews, favorites and follows. I really appreciate it. It makes my day, and makes me post faster. Here's chapter three, and I hope that you guys enjoy it. This chapter contains abuse, so be warned.

**DISCLAIMER**: I don't own the Outsiders.

* * *

The bell over the door rung as they entered the DX. Darry held the door open for Jacquelyn and let it close behind her as she walked into the gas station. It hadn't changed since the last time she was hear. Everything looked the same. The boy behind the counter looked over at the door and then looked back down at the magazine he was reading. However, after a moment he looked back up, a smile on his face.

"Jacquelyn?" the boy behind the counter questioned as he hopped over the counter and stood in front of her.

"Sodapop?" she answered, her voice equally as questioning, as he tugged her into a hug. She laughed as she hugged him back. She then pushed him an arm's length away and smiled. "You're so handsome!" she teased. He'd always been handsome. Maybe it was not seeing him and his movie star good looks every day that really drew her attention to it. His dark brown hair was combed back out of his face, showing off his dancing dark brown eyes. As he smiled that goofy grin of his, she couldn't help but smile. Sodapop Curtis had the most contagious smile.

"Steve!" Soda called into the garage.

"Yeah?" he called back, his voice muffled.

"Come in here."

After a few moments and more than a few cuss words, Steve appeared in the doorway. He took a rag off the wall and started rubbing his hands with it, attempting to remove all of the dirt and oil. "What buddy?" he questioned not taking the time to look up from the task of cleaning his hands.

"You could at least speak to a lady," Jacquelyn teased. The first thing that she noticed about his was that he was noticeable taller. A good five, six inches maybe. He'd gotten more muscular, but still kept his lean figure. His dark hair was greased, possibly permanently with the amount of grease that he had to use, in complicated curls in it. He flicked his eyes up to her, and a smile came across his hard features.

"Hey, Jacquelyn," he said as he continued to wipe at his hands. "How goes it?"

"Fine," she answered. "How's my car?"

Steve's eyes lit up at the mention of her car. "Jacquelyn, you have a tuff car, you know for a girl and all."

"Thank you?"

"Welcome," he tossed the rag into a bin behind the counter. "So I gave you a new battery, and while I was at it I changed your oil and rotated your tires. You're good to go." He reached behind the counter and grabbed her keys. "1952 Ford Crestline," he said with a low whistle. "How did you get your cute little hands on that?" he asked as he walked over to her and held the keys out to her.

"It's my dad's car," she said as she attempted to take the keys from his hand only to have him yank the keys away from her. They repeated this action twice before she snatched them away from him. "Thank you."

"Good to see your pretty face again," he told her.

"What are you doing tonight?" Soda asked pulling the conversation back to him.

"Nothing. Why?"

"You wanna go to the Dingo with us?" Steve asked.

"Us?"

"Me, Steve, Ponyboy, and Two-Bit," Soda said. "I don't know if Darry's gonna go. He should though."

The list was so short. The light in her hazel eyes faltered as she realized this. The list was two people short. Dallas and Johnny.

"You not going?" she asked Darry.

He shrugged. "I don't go out too much," he supplied.

"I'll go if you go," she told Darry.

Darry looked down at her and he sighed. He knew that he wouldn't hear the end of it if he didn't go. He knew that Jacquelyn was still going to go out with the boys, but neither party was going to let it go. He looked at her dancing hazel eyes and her playful smile. How could he say no to that? "Yeah, alright. I'll go." The smile on her lips grew and he was pleased with her reaction to his decision.

"We'll see you at eight?" Steve questioned.

"Yeah, I'll meet ya'll there," Jacquelyn agreed. She brushed her hair from her eyes and then looked at each of them in turn. "I gotta hit the store, but it was real nice to see ya'll. Steve, thank you for fixing my car."

"Ain't a problem," he replied with a wave of his hand.

She stepped back and turned on her heel. "I'll see ya'll at eight," she called as she walked out of the door.

* * *

"You shoulda seen the way Darry looked at her," Soda said to Ponyboy once they were at the house. Soda had taken to telling the story of the events that took place at the gas station to Ponyboy and Two-Bit. From his perch on the arm of the sofa, he wove a story that was much more dramatic than anything that he could have ever imagined.

"Hush up, Sodapop," Darry called from the kitchen. In front of him were all the bills that needed to be paid by the end of the month. The gas bill, the electric bill, and the water bill. Darry ran his fingers through his hair and sat the water bill aside, he knew that he could pay that one, it was the cheapest.

"Why, Dare?"

"You're making something out of nothing."

"Am I?"

Was he? Darry thought back to morning with her. He thought about how good she looked in her jean capris. The way that the denim hugged the curves of her body. He thought about how his heart had sped up watching her walk. The sway of her hips. The sound of her voice, her laugh stirred something in him. His thoughts then to the marks on her arm. The five red dots on her pale ivory skin. Something burned in him, but he did his best to push it away. None of his business.

"You are," he replied as he pushed the thoughts of her and her citrus scented brown hair away. He decided that this wasn't the best time to figure out the finances. His mind was racing far too much for that. He looked over at the clock on the wall and sighed. "Ya'll ready?"

* * *

Jacquelyn popped her head from under the quilt and sighed. Lazily, she reached over and turned light sitting on her bedside table on. She hissed as the light flooded the room, her eyes adjusting to the light. After a moment, she looked at the clock on her all and gasped loudly.

Shit.

It was 7:45. There was no way on earth that she was going to be able to get redressed and to the Dingo by eight. The brunette tumbled from under her quilt on to the cold floor for the second time that day. Quickly, she reached out and grabbed the outfit she'd had on earlier that day, and tugged it on. She then took the brush to the think brown hair. She grabbed her keys and her shoes before tearing out of her bedroom.

"JACKIE!"

She slid to a stop at the front door and looked back into the living room, shifting her weight from foot to foot impatiently. "Yes?"

"Where are you going?" her father asked, not bothering to look away from the television.

"Out."

"With?"

"Friends."

He didn't say anything else and she assumed that it was safe for her to go. She muttered a good-bye as she walked out of the front door. She sat down in the driver's seat of the car and pulled her shoes on, before starting the car. After adjusting the mirror, she pulled out of her driveway and on to the street.

It took her fifteen minutes to get to the Dingo, with her going ten over the speed limit and not yielding at yellow lights. She pulled the dark green car into the first parking spot she saw and hopped out of the car. She then trekked into the restaurant.

When she opened the door, she was greeted by the sound of music playing on the jukebox. She couldn't quite place the song though. When she was greeted at the door, she told the waitress that she was here with a group of five boys, one of which looked like a movie star. She nodded knowingly and led her to where they were seated.

"Excuse me, pretty lady, let me pull out your chair," a voice said from behind her. She turned over her shoulder to see a smiling Two-Bit. His blue eyes sparkled as he pulled her seat out. Jacquelyn looked at him through narrowed eyes, trying to decide whether or not he was going to pull the chair from under her as she sat down. "Look, honey, I don't just do this for all the ladies."

"Only the pretty ones?"

"Only the pretty ones," he agreed as he ran his fingers though his blond hair.

"Are you gonna pull the chair from under me," she questioned. It was better to ask and know, than to not ask and not know.

He laughed. "No, Jacquelyn. Sit your fine ass down." The brunette did as told as she looked down to hide the blush that crept up her cheeks. She was unsuccessful and the blond laughed as he sat down next to Steve. "Nothing's changed."

"Hush up, Keith," the girl told him.

Two-Bit frowned a bit as she called him his real name. "We've talked about this, Jacquelyn." The brunette waved him warning tone away with her hand. Again, Two-Bit laughed. "Ponyboy, you remember Jacquelyn?" he asked as he pushed a Pepsi across the table towards her. She thanked him and pulled the straw towards her.

Ponyboy flicked his green-grey eyes up to her hazel ones. His hands were folded on his lap, as he allowed her to give him the once over. His hair was in some sort of transition process. The roots were coming in dark brown, almost red, but his hair was a fading blond color. His face had lost some of the baby fat that had been there before, and the air innocence and naivety that accompanied him wasn't as prominent. It was his turn to give her the once over, and she allowed his eyes to trace over her face. Probably counting the twenty something freckles that were sprinkled over the bridge over her nose and her cheeks. Although, this exchange seemed to take forever it only took a few seconds.

"Sorta," Ponyboy replied quietly.

"Well, I remember you," Jacquelyn supplied.

"Kid, doesn't talk much," Steve told her.

She nodded in understanding, before share one last look with Ponyboy. Her hazel eyes then fell on the boy with the complicated swirls in his hair. "Steve," his eyes met her. "That car purrs."

He laughed, apparently pleased with himself. "You noticed?"

"How could I not. What did you do to it?"

"Now, I can't tell you that."

A waitress came to the table to take their orders. The boys order first, all of them ordering a large burger and fries. When it was her turn, she order a smaller burger and fries. The waitress nodded and told them that their food would be out shortly.

They talked idly as they waited. They talked about whatever came to mind. Sports, cars, the weather. They were reconnecting. tT was so easy to fall back into the normal way of just being around them. They welcomed her back with open arms, just like they had welcomed her into their group the first time. She'd been a little concerned when Darry said he'd wanted her to meet his friends. All the thought of them not liking her plagued her, however she met them, she realized that all her worrying had been in vain. They were the most welcoming people she'd ever met.

Before she knew it, they were paying their tabs and preparing to leave. The light in her bright eyes dimmed. She wasn't quite ready to leave. Hanging out with them was much more interesting that sitting at home with her father. Darry placed his hand on her shoulder, pulling her from her thoughts. He looked down at her and she smiled up at him.

"You alright?" he questioned.

She nodded, before finishing off her Pepsi. As she stood, Two-Bit flung his arm around her shoulders, and she placed her arm on his waist. Two-Bit whispered something in her ear, and it caused her to laugh. She looked over her shoulder at Darry, her hazel eyes glowing. She then turned her attention back to Two-Bit as she responded to whatever he'd said to her.

Darry followed as they walked outside of the Dingo and circled just to the left of the door. He heard her laugh again. It was a full laugh, one that rang out in the group. A contagious laugh. Darry even felt himself smiling as he placed himself next to Jacquelyn in the circle.

"I had fun, guys," Jacquelyn told them. "Thanks for inviting me."

"No problem," Soda said. "You have to come over and play poker with us sometime." The invite was more of a demand than an actual invite.

"Alright," she accepted. "Thursday's right?" Soda nodded. "I'll see you then."

"Okay, guys," Darry said, his voice startling her a bit. "Let's all get home, yeah?" Two-Bit and Soda protested, while Steve rocked back on his heels, and Ponyboy found something interesting on the ground. He fished his keys out of his pocket and tossed them to Soda, "Start the truck." Soda didn't need any more direction. He took off towards the car with Ponyboy in tow. "Where'd you park?" Darry asked after looking around the parking lot.

"Behind the building," she told him.

"Let me walk you to your car," he stated.

Jacquelyn shrugged and allowed him to escort her to her car. She pushed her hands into her pockets and walked in pace with him. Her footsteps falling lightly compared to his. "I'm glad you came out tonight," she said suddenly.

"I didn't have much of a choice between you and Soda, did I?" Darry asked. There was no teasing tone in his voice. The only tone was the upward inflection at the end that made it a question.

"I suppose not," she replied. She pushed opened her car door and then turned to look at him. "Well, thanks for coming out anyway."

"Yeah," he said as he pushed his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels.

"Well, maybe I'll see you around?" she asked hopefully.

Darry opened his mouth to say, 'doubt it', however when he looked at her hopeful hazel eyes, be knew that he couldn't say that. He didn't want to be the person to kill the light in her eyes. He never wanted to be that person. "Jacquelyn, I-"

She waved her hand, dismissing the topic as she slipped into her car. "Don't worry about it," she told him. She started the car roughly, and closed her door. He took a step away from the car as she pulled out of the space and drove by him.

He watched her taillights until they were out of his line of vision. After a few moments of standing, he kicked at the gravel on the ground angrily and grunted. He then started back towards the truck. Soda was sitting in the middle while Ponyboy leaned on the window from the passenger side seat. Darry ran his fingers through his hair and hopped into the cab.

"Ready to go?" he questioned to his brothers. Without waiting for a response, he pulled out of the parking lot and on to the road.

* * *

"Where've you been?" her father slurred at her from the sofa.

Jacquelyn sighed. She really wanted to lay down and go to bed. She really didn't want to deal with her father and his drunken ways at the moment. However, she walked into the living room and sat the keys on the table. "Out to dinner with friends," she told him. "I told you that before I left, remember?"

"You wasting money?" he grumbled.

"I gotta eat, don't I? Not everyone can live off alcohol like you," Jacquelyn snapped at him. As soon as she'd said it, she regretted it. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. "I'm sorry, Daddy. I-"

Her words fell on deaf ears. He was already standing and stumbling towards her with his hand raised. The brunette took a step back for every step he took towards her until her back was pressed against the wall. She squeezed her hazel eyes shut as soon as she saw his hand start to lower. The loud _smack_ seemed to echo through the room. The brunette sank to the ground, her hands over her face. That didn't' stop him. His hands continued to fall on her. The skin on her arms stung as she covered her face. The hits were heavy at first, however, after the first few hits, they lightened. Then the stopped. She could hear her father standing over her breathing heavily. She didn't look up. She didn't move. She just sat with her arms covering her face and her knees pulled to her chest until she heard the floorboards creak, signaling that he was walking away.

The brunette quickly got to her hands and knees and crawled to her bedroom. Standing up would only catch his attention and send him at her again. Once inside of head bedroom, she locked the door. With her back pressed against the door as she exhaled shakily, letting the sobs shake her body.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Thank you so much for the reviews! I love that you guys love Jacquelyn. So in case it wasn't clear i just wanted to give you a time line of these chapters. Chapter one was one day. Chapter 2 and 3 were the next day. Chapter 4 is a week after chapter 3. I'm bad at writing time lapses, or at least clearly stating how much time has passed, so I'll probably end up doing a timeline every so often. Enjoy! And I posted this because I have written up to chapter 8, yeah that far ahead, and I guess I was really excited about post up to what I have written.

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own the Outsiders.

* * *

"Go ahead and clock out, Jacquelyn."

The brunette looked up from the box of records she had been sorting through. Her hazel eyes focusing on her boss who was standing at the front of the store, turning the open sign to closed. Jacquelyn sighed as she plucked a few more records out of the box and placed them in their correct places. After she'd finished, she propped the box up on her hip and started to the back of the record store. As she opened the door of the back room, she flicked on the light. The girl then sat the box on the floor and then turned the light off.

"Jacquelyn," another voice called to her.

She whipped her head around to face the blond that had addressed her. She was greeted by a pair of baby-blue eyes and a dimpled smile. Those could only belong to Gina Fields. She had a heart shaped face that her baby-blue eyes complimented perfectly. He build was curvaceous with shapely legs. Her blue eyes glittered at Jacquelyn.

"Gina."

The two girls had only known one another for a short while, one month to be exact. However, it seemed as if they had known one another for years. They just clicked. Their personalities were similar. They were both bubbly and hopeful. So when, Jacquelyn walked into the record store to clock in with bruises on her arms and face early last week, Gina took it on herself to find out what had happened. It took a total of two days before Gina got the entire story. It only took Gina all of three seconds to offer her sofa up to Jacquelyn. She needed a place to stay, a safe place, and Gina had one. Jacquelyn only took her up on the offer for one night, saying she wasn't trying to put her out.

"Your face looks better," Gina said in her nasally voice.

There was no amount of makeup that she could have used to cover the bruise that formed on her cheek the morning after her father had hit her. She'd applied layer upon layer, but nothing worked. So as she left and drove to the record store, she came up with a story. A story that no one believed, but the only person that called her one it was Gina.

"Thanks."

Gina plucked a The Monks record from the Kinks section and placed it back where it belonged. "My couch is still open," she said quietly, well as quietly as her nasally voice would allow. "You can always stay with me."

Jacquelyn smiled and ran her fingers through her hair as she clocked out. She hooked her thumbs through the belt loops of her denim capris and sighed. "I'm gonna get some coffee tonight," she told her friend. "Then I'm gonna go to my house, and sleep in my bed." Gina opened her mouth to say something and Jacquelyn shushed her. "I'm gonna be fine."

Gina mumbled something about Jacquelyn being to headstrong for her own good as she clocked out and followed her friend to the parking lot. They said their goodbyes and pulled out of the lot and on to the road, both heading in different directions.

Jacquelyn headed towards the diner she'd been at last week when she ran into Darrel Curtis. At the Dingo, he'd mentioned that they had some great coffee. The diner was on her way home and she just figured that stopping there would be better than going home. She turned into the parking lot of the diner and parked close to the door. She hoped out of the car and entered the diner without a second thought.

"Jacquelyn?"

His voice startled her. She looked over at a booth and spotted the person who'd called her name. The one and only Darrel Curtis. He was sitting with a newspaper in front of him and a cup of coffee to his left. His blue-green eyes met her hazel ones and her pale ivory skin brightened. He then took in the outfit she had on. Tight denim capris and an even tighter purple sweater. Her thick brown hair was loose, hanging just below mid-shoulder blade. Her makeup was done well. The dark eyeliner made her hazel eyes pop and the mascara opened them.

"Seat taken?" she asked as she pointed to the spot across from him. He shook his head gesturing to the seat across from him. "Thanks."

"What are you doing here?" he questioned.

A waitress came to the table to refill Darry's coffee cup. When she saw that he'd been joined, she quickly asked if she could get her anything. Jacquelyn ordered a cup of coffee as well. The waitress nodded and walked away to grab a clean coffee cup. Upon her return, she sat the cup in front of Jacquelyn and filled it. The red haired waitress informed Jacquelyn that her name was Suzanne, and to call her if she needed her before walking away.

"I came to get coffee," she told him quietly. "What are you doing here?"

Darry pointed to the cup of coffee in front of him. "The same." He folded the newspaper and sat in beside him. "Soda, Steve, and Two-Bit missed you last night," Darry commented.

She could have smacked herself. She knew that there was something that she had to do last night. However, as she and Gina lay on the sofa scrolling through the television channels and eating popcorn, she couldn't remember what it was that she needed to do. "God, I knew there was something."

Darry shrugged. "Don't get worked up over it. There will be other Thursdays," he explained as he brought the cup up to his lips and took a long sip.

They two were quiet as they sipped the coffee. There was a chill in the diner and the coffee canceled it out perfectly. On the occasion, they would look up at the same time, blue-green eyes catching hazel ones and they would look away. A blush creeping on to her cheeks. Or they would catch the other stealing glances. He'd watch her over the brim of his cup as he sipped his coffee, and when she'd look up he'd look down. She'd watch him from under her thick eyelashes, and when he'd look at her, she would focus her eyes somewhere in the distance. Finally, it was her that broke the silence.

"Dare?" she questioned.

"Yeah?"

"How did they die?" she asked in a soft voice.

Darry sighed and ran his hand down his face. In that moment, he looked much older than his twenty years. With his hand folded on the table in front of him and his eyes focused somewhere behind her, he started. It was a difficult tale to hear. Ponyboy had gone out with Johnny and Dallas to the drive-in. There they encountered a redhead named Cherry. Dallas had failed in hitting on her and left steaming. Two-Bit had come. The boys decided to walk Cherry and her friend, Marsha, out. This decision resulted in a run in with Cherry and Marsha's boyfriend's. Words were thrown and knives were pulled, but no harm was done. The boys then walked home. Johnny and Ponyboy going to the vacant lot where they fell asleep. When Ponyboy awoke, he ran home, but it was too late. An argument ensued and ended with Darry pushing his little brother. Jacquelyn noticed the look of shame that crossed Darry's features when he said that. It had been an action that he sincerely regretted. Ponyboy ran out of the door, and back to Johnny. The two young boys went for a walk in the park, when they spotted a white Mustang, Socs looking for fight. The Socs approached the two Greaser Boys talking all kinds of crap, making Ponyboy's blood boil. Ponyboy instigated an attack by spitting on them and running. They caught him and dunked his head in the fountain. To save Ponyboy's life, Johnny stabbed a Soc successfully stopping the attack and accidentally killing a Soc. In a panic, the boys went to Dallas Winston. Dallas told them to catch a train and lay low until he came to get them. "I don't know a lot about what happened in Windrixville," Darry admitted. "I just know what Ponyboy told the court. They stayed in a church for a week, reading _Gone with the Wind_ and eating bologna sandwiches. Johnny and Ponyboy gave each other haircuts, hoping that it would disguise them. Then Dallas came." The trio went to a Dairy Queen to get real food, BBQ sandwiches and Pepsi, and when they returned to the church it had caught fire. Johnny and Ponyboy ran into the burning church because there were children in the fire. The younger boys saved them all. Ponyboy got out of the fire. Johnny wasn't so lucky. "A burning timber fell on his back. Crushed his spine and burned him pretty bad. Dallas ran in to help him and pulled him out. Johnny was never gonna walk again if he lived through it," Darry informed her in a tight voice. "The next day, or maybe it was the day after, Ponyboy and Two-Bit visited him and Dallas. Two-Bit said that Johnny didn't look to hot, when I asked him. The rumble came that night."

"Did Ponyboy fight?" she questioned hoarsely.

"Yeah, Ponyboy fought. We won, the Socs retreated back to their Mustangs, and Dallas took Ponyboy to the hospital where Johnny died. According to Ponyboy, Dallas ran out of the hospital. Pony walked home, and informed us of Johnny's death. Dallas called soon after, saying he needed a place to hide because he'd robbed a store. We were going to meet him in the park, all of us. We saw him take out his gun, and the cops fired. He was dead before he hit the ground."

Jacquelyn sat in a shocked silence. She honestly couldn't believe that that had happened. She looked over at Darry, who was looking older than his twenty years again. She had never really gotten close to Johnny, he was so skittish. However, when she did talk to him, he was the kindest person that she knew. On the other hand, she did get to know Dallas Winston. They had an odd relationship. They would go back and forth bickering like small children. Dallas always had to be right, even when he was wrong. Yet, no matter how ugly the words between them got, Dallas was like a brother that she never had and never really wanted, and he had admitted to her drunkenly that she was like his sexy older sister. He always seemed to appear at the most inopportune times and do the most inappropriate things. But he was Dallas Winston. He spent his life in trouble with the law, in and out of the cooler, but he was invincible, and if he cared about you, like the cared about the gang and her, then you were invincible too.

"I'm so sorry," the brunette told him when she was finally able to speak. She was still in shock.

Darry nodded in acceptance. When she didn't' speak again, he knew better than to push the subject. He sat and sipped on his coffee as he watched her marinating in the story and her thoughts. "Jacquelyn?" he called to her after a few moments. Her hazel eyes focused in on him. His eyes scanned her face, making sure that there were no signs of distress. His scanning stopped abruptly when he came across the discoloration under her right eye. The makeup hid it well enough, making it difficult to notice if one wasn't looking at her closely. However, he noticed. The purple showed through the makeup. The yellow around the purple showed. Something in him bristled. "What happened to your face?" he questioned slowly through gritted teeth.

"I ran into a door," she answered automatically. Darry scoffed. "What? I'm clumsy!" she explained. She knew that he wasn't buying into her story. "Come on, Dare."

He pushed cup of coffee away from him violently. "Why won't you tell me?" Her hazel eyes grew wide at his outburst. Her small hands gripped the side of the table and her heart rate increased rapidly. Upon seeing her reaction, he sighed and ran his fingers though his hair. "I'm sorry."

She nodded as she folded her hands in her lap. "It's fine." She was quiet for a moment as she regained her composer. "Why does it matter?" she questioned.

"You're my friend," he responded without hesitation.

Friend. That was an odd thing to call her. It seemed like it had been many millennia friends. Paul Holden's girlfriend at the time introduced them. Jacquelyn was new and just happened to find herself face to face with Lisa. When she admitted that she was lost, Lisa showed her around. Which was how they ran into Darrel and Paul. When Jacquelyn's hazel eyes flicked up to meet his blue-green ones, he felt something. Although, he wasn't quite sure what it was at the time, he know recognized them as butterflies. Jacquelyn mentioned that he had Geometry with Mr. Hartford, and Darry said that he did as well. So they spilt from the couple and went off to class. Due to her contagious laugh and bubbly personality, Darry knew they would be fine friends.

"I suppose I am," Jacquelyn replied.

"I just want to make sure that you are okay," he continued carefully. The wording of that sentence was difficult. He didn't want to sound aloof and uncaring, but he didn't want to sound like, for lack of better term, a boyfriend. He wasn't that to her. At least not anymore.

"I'm fine," she assured him with a toothy smile.

She was lying through her teeth, and he knew it. She was lying and there wasn't a damn thing that he could do about it. When the realization came it was like a knife through his stomach. Seeing her bruises, stirred something other than anger. It stirred up protective feelings for her. He had been her protector for so long that, this, not protecting her would drive him crazy. However, it didn't just stir protective feelings for her, it stirred all the feelings he had for her. He still cared for her.

"Well, if you need anything-"

"I know who to call."

She'd call him. She'd call him like she always did. Whenever she'd needed him, he always came to her aid. When her parents would fight, she would call him on the verge of tears and he'd be over in five minutes to whisk her away from everything. He'd always been there for her. He'd always been like her own personal Superman.

"Good." There was a pause in the conversation as Darry thought about how to word his next sentence. "I'm sorry for the way that I behaved at the Dingo."

He'd been short with her. Whenever the conversation would roll around to him, his answers would be just enough to keep the conversation going. She thought that when he offered to walk her to her car that he would lighten up, but the shortness only continued. She wasn't quite sure what to make of his actions, and in the end decided that it was best to just leave well enough alone.

"It's okay."

And it was. She couldn't just bulldoze back into his life and expect everything to be the same. He had changed. She knew this for a fact, because she was there when he changed. After his parents died, his change was almost instantaneous. He'd come to her room and told her what happened. When she tried to comfort him, he pulled away. He then told her what his two options were as far as his family went. He could stay at University of Tulsa and his brothers could be placed in a boys' home. Or he could drop out and take care of his family. She didn't need to ask him which on he'd selected. She could see it in his eyes. After he walked out of her room, he was never the same again.

"Alright," he muttered. Jacquelyn was quiet for a moment, taking in the situation. Suddenly, she yawned. "You're tired," he told her. She shook her head. If she admitted to being sleepy he would make her go home. "You are." She ran her fingers through her dark hair and sighed. "Why don't you want to go home?" he question carefully.

Her hazel eyes shot up to his blue-green ones. "I'm not avoiding going home," she told him.

"I just asked why you doing want to go home. I didn't say you were avoiding going home."

Shit.

"Why are you avoiding going home, Jacquelyn?"

"I'm not," she replied.

Darry had to hold his tongue. He wasn't going to get any answers from her tonight. He could see that now. He supposed that whatever was going on she didn't want him to know about.

"Alright, I'm sorry," he said to her in surrender.

She flashed him a smile, letting him know that he was forgiven. Her hazel eyes connected with his cobalt ones. She held his gaze for a moment. Her hazel eyes searching. The question slipped from her lips before she could stop it. "Why didn't you ever call?"

The question caught him off guard, and that wasn't an easy thing to do. His eyes widen slightly before letting a soft sigh escape his lips. "Jacquelyn, I don't-"

"Don't say you don't know," she pressed.

He thought over her question for a long moment before he came to the decision to tell her the truth. He leaned back in the booth seat and sighed. "Jacquelyn, I called you," he admitted. "I called you," he paused, "several times."

"You never called me," she uncharacteristically snapped. "That's a lie."

He knew that it wasn't going to be as easy as telling her that he'd called. Things were never that easy with her. "It's not a lie. I called you, and you never called back."

Jacquelyn angrily pushed herself away from the table and crossed her arms over her chest. Her hazel eyes were disbelieving. He was sitting there, in front of her lying. Lying to her face. It was outrageous. Yet as she looked into his eyes, she could see that he wasn't. There was no sign of the concentration that would be present in him making anything up. There was nothing. His azure eyes were honest. Completely honest. Her anger melted and her arms fell to her sides. "You called me?"

"Several times," he confirmed. "You mom answered the phone and said that she was going to let you know." He folded a napkin in his hands. "The last time I called was maybe a month after you left, after that I figured that you had moved on."

"You called me?" she repeated still in shock. He'd called and her mother hadn't relayed the message. The latter part of that statement would be dealt with at a later point. Her heart lept in her chest the more she thought about the fact that he'd called her.

"Yes."

"Oh." That was the only thing that she could think of to say. "I'm sorry."

Darry waved his hand, dismissing her apology. "It's fine." He shifted in the booth seat a bit uncomfortable with the situation. There was something about Jacquelyn that just made him talk. Maybe it was the way that she looked at him with her hazel eyes as if she could see the words before he said them. Maybe it was the way she sat with her elbows on the table and her chin propped up on her intertwined fingers listening attentively. There was just something about her that made him talk. He looked down at his watch and exhaled softly. "I gotta get going, Jacquelyn," he said as he stood up. He placed enough for two cups of coffee on the table. "My treat."

"Next time, it'll be mine," she told him without hesitation.

"Jacquelyn," he sighed.

"Don't cut me out," she demanded softly. He looked down at her. Her canine tooth bite down on her bottom lip as she thought about the wording of her sentence. "I know I just got back, and a lot has changed and happened, but you can't just cut me out."

He placed his palms on the table and lifted his cobalt eyes to hers. There was that look again. The one that he couldn't say no to. "I can't promise you that I won't, but I can say that I can try not to."

That was better than nothing. She nodded as he pushed off the table and walked towards the door. "Darry," she called as she looked over her shoulder. He looked over at her. "I get off a six on Fridays," she said to him, a hint of a smile in her voice. "This place has really good coffee."

* * *

The next Friday, Jacquelyn sat at a table with her hands folded in front of her. Her light eyes flicked around the diner as she waited. Her foot tapped impatiently. She'd been waiting for a half an hour. Her hazel eyes flicked to the door, and then to the cup of coffee in front of her, and then back to the door. Her eyes then found the clock on the wall. She'd been waiting for thirty-one minutes now. She ran her fingers through her dark hair and sighed. He wasn't coming. He just wasn't going to show. The brunette lay her forehead on the table and then brought her hand up to push the cup of coffee away from her.

"Hey, Jacquelyn," his voice said to her.

The brunette sat up quickly, her dark hair flipping over her shoulders. Her hazel eyes brighten and smile, that she desperately tried to contain, played on her full lips.

"You came."

* * *

**A/N Number 2: **So I don't feel that I did an amazing job describing the events of the novel. However, I was trying to do if from the information that Darry would know, and I figured that he wouldn't know all of the details.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Hey there! So my semester started on Monday, boo. However, I have been write a bit in my free time. I'm putting some editing touches on the next chapter, so that I can prepare it for posting, and I'm finishing up chapter 8 and moving into chapter 9. I'm loving all of the reviews! It's funny though, because I've got so much typed already, I always have to go back and read the chapter after I start getting reviews so I know what's going on in the chapter. I'm gonna try to continue to update regularly, twice a week or once a week, depending on what I have typed and the free time that I have. But continue to review and enjoy this chapter.

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own _The Outsiders_.

* * *

Jacquelyn lay down on her bed and sighed. Her dark hair fanning out over her navy pillow and closed her hazel eyes. She folded her arms across her chest and exhaled again. It had been a long three weeks. Penny's, the record shop that she worked in, had been unusually busy. Teens had been coming to the store in packed cars to buy records and just to hang out. The store was packed from about two hours after they opened until the time that they closed.

The only thing that kept her going were her weekly meetings with a certain Mr. Darrel Curtis. She'd been hesitant that he would agree, but her worries were put to rest when he appeared in front of her. When he got there they talked. They talked about any and everything. The weather, friends, family, anything. Well, not quite anything. The one topic that they skirted around was the past that they shared together. Whenever it was brought up, they would somehow manage to get around it and back to safer conversation.

In order to pull herself out of the thoughts of Darrel Curtis, she reached over on to her nightstand and picked up the copy of _Sense and Sensibility. _The spine was worn from reading it so many times and the pages weren't in the best condition either. She thumbed though he pages of the novel, stopping from time to time to read a page that was doggie eared. As she thumbed through the book, she stopped a photo between one of the pages. Curious, she turned back and plucked it from the book.

"_Dare, sit still will, ya'?" she scolded playfully. She leaned against the wall beside the mirror in his bedroom and waited for him to stop moving around. He looked over at her. He ran his fingers though his hair and sighed as he walked out of the bedroom and down the hall. The brunette sighed and tailed him down the hall. When she finally reached him he was sitting in the chair in the kitchen. "Are you ready now?" she questioned holding the bow tie between her index finger and thumb. _

"_Yeah," he nodded. _

_Jacquelyn sighed as she knelt down in front of him. She flicked the collar of his white shirt up and tossed the fabric over his head. After making sure that the left side was a bit longer than the right, she flawlessly and effortlessly tied the tie. She then reached over his shoulders and started to lay the collar of his shirt down, her fingers brushing against the skin on his neck sending chills down his spine. She walked around him until she was standing behind him with her chin on his shoulder. She was just about to speak when her name rang out in the house._

"_Jacquelyn!" his mother's voice called to him. _

"_Kitchen, Mrs. Curtis," she called back. She tugged at Darry's bow tie attempting to straighten it. _

"_Jacquelyn, I-"his mother's voice trailed off when she stumbled upon the couple in the kitchen. "Oh! Stay there, just like that." Darry and Jacquelyn exchanged confused looks. When his mother appeared in the doorway, she was holding a camera. Darry rolled his eyes._

"_Mom, I don't think that-"_

"_Hush, Darrel," his mother told him. She knelt down eye level to Darry, for a long moment he sat there and watched unblinkingly. However, the unblinking stare broke and he chuckled at his mother. "Smile!"_

_Jacquelyn tugged on his bow tie, as she looked over at him, encouraging him to smile. So he did. His mother snapped the photo of them. Her chin on his shoulder with her fingers on his bow tie, and a smile on her full lips. Him wearing his black blazer and a toothy smile. _

Jacquelyn sat the photo down on her bedside table. She then reached in to the drawer and pulled out a small photo album. She brushed as stray strand of hair from her eyes as she flicked open the cover. The album was pull of pictures from high school. Photos of her with her friends at every event that they had ever been too. Photos of her and her friends with blue and gold face paint on as they cheered on the football team on Friday nights. Photos of her in Darry's blue and gold letterman jacket. A smile played on her lips as he flipped through the pages. She stopped again as she picked another photo out of the album.

"_Dare?" she questioned through a yawn._

_They were laying on the sofa in his living room. Her head lay comfortably in his lap as she lay on her back. He arm rest on the arm of the sofa, cradling in a textbook in his hand. His blue-green eyes stopped scanning over the pages of the textbook as he closed it on his thumb and looked down at her. Her hazel eyes were closed and tapped her forehead with the spine of the book causing her hazel eyes to snap open. _

"_Hmm?" _

"_What time is it?" she questioned as she closed her light eyes again._

"_Five minutes later than it was when you asked me the last time, Jacquelyn," he told her. She groaned and covered her eyes with her arms. "How are you reading, if your book is closed and so are your eyes?"_

_A smile played on her lips. "Well, clearly I'm not."_

_Darry rolled his eyes, and opened his book again. He picked up reading where he'd left off. As some point, the brunette with her head in his lap must have fallen asleep. He looked down at her, her chest rising and falling slowly. The muscles in her face relaxed; a look of complete relaxation and contentment on her face. He let his arm fall from the back of the sofa and down to run his fingers through her dark hair, she stirred a bit rolling over on to her side. He then turned the page of the book and continued to read, deciding that she needed the catnap that she was taking. _

"_That's a good one," Mrs. Curtis said after snapped the photo. Darry glowered at her over the top of his book. "I just needed to take one more to complete the roll," she said with a smile. _

Jacquelyn placed the photo back in the album and then continued to flip through it.

* * *

Darrel Curtis all but collapsed on his bed after he walked into his bedroom. He exhaled loudly into the pillow on his bed before folding his arms under his head. He closed his blue-green eyes and sighed again. He inhaled and exhaled slowly as he stretched from his position attempting to relax his muscles. The man then rolled over on to his back and looked up at the ceiling. His eyes fell to the calendar on the wall. It was Wednesday. Another hefty sigh passed his lips, as he rolled his eyes. It was only Wednesday. Two days closer to Friday, but still two days away.

Over the past three weeks, Friday had quickly become his favorite day, not that he would ever say that to anyone. On Fridays he get to see her. It was kind of a treat at the end of a long work week. When he clocked out of work, he couldn't wait to get to the diner were the met and sit across from her. When he was with her, he didn't feel like big brother playing the parent role. He just felt like Darrel Curtis Junior, an average twenty year old sitting across from a beautiful woman. When they were together all they did was talk. They sat across from one another and just talked. They just talked about whatever they wanted to.

Darry reached over and pulled open the drawer on his bed side table. After a few seconds of pushing things around, he picked up a picture frame that had been overturned in his drawer for the past few months. With an exhale, he blew the dust off of the glass.

_Her hazel eyes were aglow as they walked through the fair. His arm settled on her hip, his thumb finding its way through the belt loop on her white shorts. In her hand was a cone of pink cotton candy that she seemed to be enjoying thoroughly. Whenever he would reach over in an attempt to snag a piece, she would quickly swat his hand away. Her long brown hair was loose and curly. On the occasion, Darry would gently pull the end of one of her curls straight and watch it spring back to its curl. _

_The night was coming to an end, and when he asked what she wanted to do last, her answer came without any hesitation. "The Merry-Go-Round," she'd replied. He'd expected no less. When they got into the line, they saw another couple that went to school with them. Jacquelyn was the first to speak to them, calling their names in her bubbly voice, James and Dona if he remember correctly. The two couples talked until they got to the man taking the tickets. _

_Once in the railings that surround the carousel, Jacquelyn took off like a child towards the horses. When he found her, she was climbing on top of a white stallion that had stopped at the highest point that it could go. Darry walked over to her and lifted her enough so that she could get her foot in the stirrup. After that she was able to swing her leg over the horse without a problem. Darry swung his leg on to the brown horse next to her and the carousel started to move. _

_Her laughter was enough to let him know that she was enjoying it. Maybe more so than anything that they had done all night. It was then that the guy from the couple, James, came round taking pictures. He snapped several of Jacquelyn laughing on the stallion. When he attempted to leave, she called out to him and reached over in an attempted to pull on Darry's arm. Darry let go of the pole and hopped off the brown stallion. The brunette scooted forward on the horse's saddle, letting Darry know what she wanted him to do. _

"_Pretty sure that's against the rules, Jacquelyn," he told her. _

"_What do it__ matter," she said through her laughter. "Come on!"_

_Darry hesitated before swinging his leg over the horse when it was low enough. He slipped one of his arms around her waist, and the other held the pole. Once he was securely on the saddle, Jacquelyn leaned back into him, her laughter vibrating in his chest. She was like Sodapop with her laughter. Her laughter was so contagious. He inhaled the citrus scent of her dark brown hair as a breeze tousled it. He then pressed his lips to the top of her head. The boy that she'd called back snapped a picture just then. _

_His lips pressed to the top of her head and his arm securely around her waist. Her back pressed against his chest and her head turned to the side as she looked at him through her peripherals. One of her smaller hands covering the one that was holding her waist. Her laughter was forever caught in that photo. Her dimples and the way her hazel eyes crinkled all frozen in time. _

_She'd approached him the next day at the end of school, saying that she had a surprise for him. He wasn't quite sure what to expect, but he knew that he wasn't expecting two photos. One of them was just of her on the white stallion laughing. The other was of the both of them._

"Darry?" a voice called to him from the doorway.

"Hmm?" he replied placing the picture face up on the bedside table. He looked over and saw Soda standing in the doorway.

"You alright?" Soda asked as he leaned against the door frame. Darry nodded. "Whatcha' got there?" Soda questioned again, pointing to the picture frame.

Darry looked over at the picture and then picked it up showing it to Soda. "A picture of Jacquelyn and me."

"She's always been really pretty," Soda told his brother as he took the picture frame from his hands. Darry nodded in agreement. "Damn good at poker too."

Last Thursday, Jacquelyn had come over to play poker with the boys. They were more than excited to see her. Even Ponyboy put on a little smile when he saw her walk through the door. Of course, no of them were expecting her to come in and kick their asses. A bitter Two-Bit had told her that she wasn't' allowed to play with them anymore, while a sour Steve was determined to prove that she had been cheating.

"Yeah," Darry replied as he took the photo from his brother and sat it upright in the bedside table.

"So," Soda probed.

"So?"

"You and Jacquelyn," Soda started slowly as he wiggled his eyebrows.

"Are friends, little buddy," Darry finished for him.

Where they really though? In all honesty, it had been so long since his been just friends with Jacquelyn, he wasn't even really sure that they could go back to being that way. However, it didn't seem that she wanted to go back to what they had either. So he supposed that they were just friends.

"Sure," Soda responded with a smirk. Darry launched a pillow at his younger brother, and Soda laughed as he walked out of the room. "I'm just saying."

"What are you saying?" Darry questioned.

"I've see the way that you two look at each other," Soda mused. Darry eyebrow arched. They way that they looked at each other. "Well the way that she looks at you." With that Soda turned on his heel and left the room.

They way that she looked at him? He lay back on his pillows and exhaled. How did she look at him? Her hazel eyes would glow and sparkle, but they did that for everyone right? Sometimes, he would catch her watching him from the corner of her eye and she'd quickly look down at her coffee with a pick tint in her cheeks. When he'd talk she'd lean on the table, her hands cradling her chin, with her hazel eyes focusing in on his blue-green ones. Her hazel eyes would glitter when she laughed, and when her eyes feel back on him, there was a look that he hadn't been able to name.

The man pushed himself off the bed and walked into the living room. Without thinking, because he knew if he thought about it he wouldn't do it, he dialed Jacquelyn's number.

"Hello," the brunette answered.

"Jacquelyn?" his voice questioned to her.

"Darry Curtis," she said, the smile on her lips was clear in her voice. "To what do I own this pleasure?"

The corners of his lips turned upward, "What are you doing?"

The brunette on the other end laughed at his question. "I'm not doing anything," she replied. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Darry replied. He paused as he wrapped the phone cord around his finger. He hadn't actually called because he wanted anything. In fact, he didn't know why he'd called her at all.

"Do you want to do something?" she questioned softly.

It hit him then. He'd called because he wanted to hear her voice, as strange as that sounded. "With you?" he questioned.

"Well, yeah. I just figured that you might want to do it with me, ya' know, since ya' called me," she stated.

The corners of his lips turned up a little more. "Yeah, I'd like to do something with you. If you wanna."

She laughed. "I'd love to."

The man unwrapped the cord from his finger, "Where ya' wanna go?"

"The park?" she questioned. After a moment of silence, she inhaled sharply realizing what she'd said. "I'm sorry, Dare-"

"Hey, hey. The park sounds good," he replied. He heard her sigh in relief glad that she hadn't said something wrong. "Meet you there?"

"You know where I'll be," she replied. "See ya' soon."

* * *

The hazel eyed brunette pushed herself on the swing. Her brown hair flowing behind her. Her hazel eyes were closed as she pushed the swing back and forth. The movement along with the cool Tulsa breeze chilled the skin on her face. She inhaled deeply, taking in the scents around her. The smell of summer filled her nose. A smile played on her lips as she pushed backwards again. Then forwards. Somewhere to her side she heard a twig snap. Her hazel eyes didn't open, nor did she stop swinging.

"Hey, there," she said.

"Hey, there," the voice of Darrel Curtis replied.

She drug her heels into the dirt under the swing as she brought it to a stop. She opened her hazel eyes and met his blue-green ones. "You found me."

A small smile played on his lips in the night. "You're not hiding very well."

The brunette shrugged as she rocked back and forth on her heels. The two settled into a silence as Darry sat down on the swing next to her. The brunette girl twisted in the swing, wrapping the chains around each other and then leaning back to let them unravel. Then repeating the process again, and again. After a few minutes of this, she leaned back and looked up at the full moon through the tree that hovered over the swing seat.

"Jacquelyn," he started quietly. She sat up and looked over at him. When she looked over at him, he lost his whole train of thought. The light from the moon reflected in her hazel eyes.

"Do you wanna push me?" she questioned in a quiet voice. His eyebrow lifted. "You know, push me in the swing?"

Darry pushed himself out of the swing and moved so he was standing behind her. He took the swing's metal chains in his hands and pulled the swing back gently, before releasing it and pushing on the small of her back. When the swing came back, he pushed on the small of her back again. He moved back as she went higher. Rocking back and forth on his feet he continued to push her smaller form on the swing. They seemed to do this for forever; him pushing her and her swinging. Suddenly, without reason, Darry reached out and grabbed the metal chains on the swing, pulling the brunette to a stop.

She looked over her shoulder and at the man behind her. His eyes focused somewhere above her head, and she sat patiently. Her slim fingers reached up the chains and brushed against his larger hand. His hands tensed momentarily, but then relaxed. She then placed her hands around his, letting the warmth circle from her hands to his, and from his to hers. Darry lifted his thumb, taking her index finger between his thumb and index finger. Absentmindedly, he started to run his thumb along her index finger. The hazel eyed girl leaned back against his chest. He smelled like tar, warm and oily, and his natural scent accompanied it. She inhaled, letting his scent overtake her.

They sat like this for a long while, longer than his pushed her on the swing. His cobalt eyes focused somewhere in the night sky. He never said anything, and neither did she. They were just there, soaking in one another's presence.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Hey there! Here's another update! I'm really glad that you all liked the last chapter; it's my second favorite one that I've written thus far. I'm super excited to get this chapter up and out there. Let me know what you think!

**DISCLAIMER: **I still don't own _The Outsiders_.

* * *

"Yeah, the Beach Boys are on the wall," Jacquelyn told the customer as she handed another customer their change. When she looked up she shook her head, "No, the other wall," the brunette called as she pointed to the far wall. "Have a great day," the girl said to the customer as she handed the bag to them.

After the customer left, Jacquelyn ran her fingers though her dark hair and sighed. Could they be any busier? It was nearing the end of July, and kids were enjoying that last bit of their summer vacation. That meant spending all their money on things that would make them look cool, or tuff, for the next school year. The brunette wasn't really sure how records would make them seem cool, or tuff, at school. However, if they were to host any sort of house party, the appropriate music would make or break them. The brunette knelt down to grab a fallen quarter off the floor.

"Excuse me, miss?" an all too familiar voice called to her. The brunette stood up quickly, almost hitting her head on the counter, and brushed her hair from her eyes. "Jacquelyn."

"Darry," she mused. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, actually," he told her.

Jacquelyn felt her cheeks grow warm. "Well, you found me. What can I do for you?"

Darry leaned against the counter across from her and sighed, once again looking much older than his twenty years. "Ponyboy's birthday is in a week." The brunette's eyes brightened. She loved birthdays. "I don't know what to do for him. This is the first without Dallas, Johnny, mom, and dad. I don't think that he wants something big, I know that he doesn't want anything big, but I don't want to do anything to small, he might think we over looked it."

The brunette looked at him carefully. He hadn't opened up to her like that since she'd been back. She looked over her shoulder at the clock, seeing that it was about 12:15, and realized that it was also his lunch break.

"Gina," the girl called. The blond looked over her shoulder and nodded. "I'm going on my break. I'll be back." As she ducked under the counter, she heard Gina saying something about there being too many people for her to take a break. The brunette rolled her eyes and walked out of the door Darry following her.

"What are you doing?"

"It's you lunch break, yeah?" she questioned and he nodded. "Well, eat lunch and we can talk birthday things. I am completely capable of doing two things at once." The brunette climbed into the cab of his truck and propped her feet up on the dashboard. "So, his birthday is the 20th, 22nd?"

"22nd," Darry confirmed as he pulled the wrap off his sandwich. He was honestly surprised that she'd even remembered that.

"Nothing too big, nothing to small," she mused. "What if you do a barbeque at your place, invite the gang over. Um, I can bake a cake, no problem." She was quiet for a moment. "I mean as long as you do something for him, he should be happy, and I mean you guys are his family. I'm sure he just wants to be around y'all."

He had never met anyone like her. Never, and he highly doubted that he would. She had to be the most thoughtful person that he had ever come into contact with. She knew that he was on his lunch break, and without being asked, took her break to help him. She was so willing to help, even before he completed asking her for help. He'd never admitted it to her, but he was always in awe of how giving she was, never asking for anything in return.

"I'll bring the cake over at like noon," she told him.

Darry arched his eyebrow and looked over at her. "Bring it over?"

"Yeah," she replied, her voice confused.

"You're coming to the party," he told her. Her eyes lit up. "You thought I was going to ask you for help and not invite you?" She leaned over the seat and hugged him. Her actions were unexpected, and it took him a moment to recover from his surprise before he hugged her back. He wasn't really sure what the hug was for. The only think he knew was that her citrus scent was filling his nose. Well he knew that, and he knew one more thing. He knew that every time she'd touched him, or he'd touched her, since their night they'd spent in the park, his skin felt like it as on fire. "You're always invited over," he said quietly. "Don't think twice about it."

"Thank you," she replied, as she leaned away from him. She looked into the record store, and ran her fingers through her dark hair. "I think that I have to go," she told him. "Gina looks swamped."

"Yeah, of course," Darry said as he cleared his throat. "I'll see you Friday." The brunette nodded. "Alright."

Jacquelyn jumped out of the cab, and started back to the record store. She stopped and turned back to his truck. He rolled down the window and she leaned on the window. "Hey. Chocolate cake?"

"Nothing else is acceptable," he told her.

The brunette laughed and pushed herself off the car. She tapped the side of the vehicle as a goodbye, and started towards the store. The blond glared at her as Jacquelyn walked into the store and ducked under the counter to start ringing up the customers. With her help, the line died down within a fifteen minutes.

As Jacquelyn closed the drawer, the blond walked over and placed her elbows on the counter. "Who was that hunk of man that walked in here?" she questioned.

"That was Darry Curtis," the brunette answered as she ran her fingers through her dark hair. A small smile played on her lips.

"Is he-" Gina stopped mid-sentence. "Your ex?" Jacquelyn nodded. "Oh, he is hot." Jacquelyn rolled her eyes. "What did he want?"

"He invited me to his little brother's birthday party," she replied.

"You seein' him?"

"I've been having coffee with him Friday's after work for a month," she told her friend. "We went to the park a week ago and he pushed me on the swing."

"You make out with him?" Gina asked.

Jacquelyn rolled her eyes, "No."

Gina looked at her friend for a long while examining her hazel eyes to see if she was telling the truth. "Well, when you do-"

"I won't let you know," Jacquelyn finished before she dodged a pencil that Gina launched at her. "You could have poked my eye out." Jacquelyn shouted at the retreating blond. Gina laughed, ducking into the safety of the back room.

* * *

"Jacquelyn!"

The brunette looked up just in time to hold the cake just above Sodapop's head as he charged at her. She stumbled backwards as he collided with her. Darry appeared in the kitchen doorway and took the cake from her hand so that she didn't drop it. After a few seconds, Soda released her, and Two-Bit grabbed her.

"Let go," the brunette laughed.

"NEVER!" Two-Bit answered.

However, he did let her go. She tugged on her red sweater pulling it down a bit. She then ran her fingers through her dark hair, and moved out of the doorway. In the living room, Soda had settled on the sofa next to Ponyboy, who looked less than happy in the birthday hat that she was sure Soda placed on his head. She greeted him with a 'Happy Birthday' in a singsong voice. He tried his best to look excited about it, or at least happy, but she could tell that he was uncomfortable or sad, maybe a little of both. Steve was lounging on the floor and Two-Bit sitting next to him, both engrossed in the Mickey Mouse episode on the television. She made her way to the kitchen, where he found Darry, washing a piece of chicken in the sink.

She walked over to him and stood to his right side. "Hey," she greeted.

He looked over at her from the corner of his eye, and the corners of his lips turned up at the sight of her glowing hazel eyes. "Hey, there."

"Need help?" she questioned.

He placed the chicken he'd been washing on a paper towel and then looked over at her. The red sweater she wore clung to her torso, her curves were perfectly outlined by the article of clothing. Her legs were clad in a black pair of capris, the fabric hugging her toned legs. Her hazel eyes sparked perfectly outlined with black mascara and eyeliner.

"You wanna help?" he questioned. "You wanna help wash raw meat?"

Without thinking, she ducked under his arm and placed her hands under the running water. Her smaller frame tucked in between his arms as she washed her hands. Her back pressed to his chest, and he hoped that she couldn't feel his heart racing. The citrus scent that accompanied her filled the space between them.

"Yeah," she replied as she washed the soap off her hands.

Darry cleared his throat and moved from behind her to her side. He then cut the package of meat open and handed it to her. From there she rinsed it thoroughly, and then placed it on the paper towel covered plate. They moved in tandem, understanding the nonverbal signs that each of them gave. With her help, all the meat was washed and ready to be placed on the grill. He thanked her and told her that if she needed anything she knew where to find him.

The girl washed her hands again and slipped from the kitchen to the living room. She collapsed on to the sofa next to Ponyboy, who seemed to be the only person left in the living room.

"They left you alone on you birthday?" she questioned as she placed a pillow on her lap.

Ponyboy unconsciously mirrored her action of placing the pillow on his lap. "Yeah, I guess so," he told her. "They went to get something," he said after a pause.

"All three of them?" she replied.

"I guess so," he echoed.

Jacquelyn started to pick at a string on the pillow. She let her eyes focus on the television before looking away. She didn't care too much for Mickey Mouse. Her eyes fell on the book on the table. "You reading _Gone with the Wind_?" she asked as she reached toward it.

"Yeah, well, no not really," he said as he reached toward it and slid it out of her reach. "I was reading it to Johnny." It seemed that Ponyboy realized what he'd said, and went silent.

"I'm sorry for your loss. I know you've heard it a million times, but here is a million and one," she told him. Ponyboy nodded in acceptance.

Ponyboy looked at her for a moment. "I did remember you," he told her. "Before Soda dug out that picture."

"Yeah?" she asked curiously. The brunette angled her body towards him as she watched him.

"Yeah," he started picking at the pillow again. Before Jacquelyn could ask her question, he seemed to read it on her lips. "I don't know what I said I didn't. You were always so nice to me and Soda. Mom loved you, and Dad loved you even more. When you and Darry went to school, University of Tulsa, he said that Darry was in good hands with you." Ponyboy paused and looked at her his grey eyes wide, as if he'd just realized that he'd been saying all of those things to her. "Soda was right. Being around you makes people want to talk."

"Is that a good thing?" Jacquelyn questioned her hazel eyes meeting his grey ones.

"I think so," he said honestly.

"Okay," the brunette said.

The two then lapsed into silence.

* * *

While the boys sat around the table eating chocolate cake and telling jokes, Jacquelyn quietly ducked out of the kitchen and made her way outside to the backyard. The two younger Curtis brothers and their friends remained at the table chowing down on the cake that was left on the table. Darry had sat down with them for about an hour while they all ate and laughed. Ponyboy seemed to be enjoying it, and opening up a little more. The cake was placed on the table, and the candles lit. The birthday song was sang, and then the cake was served. The boys chowed down on the cake, saying that the cake that Jacquelyn made was amazing. Her cheeks flushed as she graciously accepted their praise. After that hour, hour and a half, Darry excused himself from the table to go and clean the grill. Jacquelyn hung out until the conversation with her died off and she could slip out unnoticed.

"So," the brunette started as she sat down in a lawn chair. "How did my idea work out?"

Darry looked over at her. The sunset reflecting in her hazel eyes. "It was great, thank you."

"You're welcome," she replied, as her hand came up to pull through her dark hair. "I think he likes me," Jacquelyn stated slowly. "I'm not really sure."

"I think that he likes you," he admitted as he took a seat next to her. "It's been hard on him," Darry told her. She turned her hazel eyes to him. "I think he was just accepting that mom and dad were gone when he lost Johnny and Dal." Darry signed and placed his hand palm up on the arm of the chair. "I'm trying to do right by him, Jacquelyn. I just feel like everything I do is wrong."

She turned toward him, and crossed her ankles. She placed her smaller hand perpendicular to his in the open palm of his hand. Her smaller fingers wrapped around his hand. "I guess that's how parents feel. I think that you're doing a good job, Dare. The people from the state must too, because you still have them."

"They have been circling like vultures, since he ran off. They come over way too often, checking the environment," Darry spat.

"You're doing fine, if you still have them," she assured as she ran her thumb across the back of his hand.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

They sat like that for a moment longer. Darry pulled his hand from hers gently and stood from the lawn chair. He offered his hand to her to pull to a standing position. She accepted. The man tugged her up, and she stumbled forward into his chest. The scent of warm tar filled her nose. The brunette took a step back and swept her hair from her eyes.

"Let me know when you get home?" he questioned, his fingers lacing between hers.

"Yeah, I'll call you when I walk in the door."

Her hazel eyes lifted to his azure ones. He held her gaze for a long moment. A feeling of nostalgia engulfed them. They'd been like this so many times before. One of his strong hands on the curve of her hip, the other hanging at their sides laced with one of hers. Her much smaller hand pressed against his chest. Where she could feel his heartbeat. She ears seemed to zero in on the thudding in his chest. For a moment, they stood just taking in each other's warmth. She turned her hazel eyes down to her hand as it curled against his chest. When she looked up, he tilted his head down to her hers, their noses touching. His warm breath caressing her full pink lips. She stared back into his azure eyes and moved up the last half inch so their lips could meet. Softly. Lovingly. She could felt his heart beat speed up under her hand as his lips moved against her. Perfectly. In tandem. That kiss; soft, but hard; heated but cool. His grasp on her waist tightened as he pulled her body closer to his. The kiss seemed to last forever.

It was Jacquelyn that broke the kiss. She turned her light eyes downward for a moment, to regain her composure and catch her breath, and then flicked her eyes back up to his. He took a half a step back from her, his hand dropping from her hip and sliding into his pocket. His eyes focused somewhere just behind her as she pushed her hair behind her ear.

"So, home," she said, her voice not sounding quite right to her own ears. She rocked back on her heels before turning over her shoulder and looking at him. "Dare, I-" she didn't quite know what she wanted to say. That kiss was better than anything that she could have imagined it to be. Her stomach was knotted and filled with butterflies, she was giddy. Yet Darry didn't seem to be in the same state of mind. "If you want to forget that it happened," she started quietly, her lips still tingling.

He looked over his shoulder at her before walking in her direction. "I don't want to forget that it happened." He sighed. "There's just a lot of factors going into life right now."

"Poor timing," she told him. "I understand." She took another step back and then turned over away from him. "I'll call you when I get home."

* * *

**A/N:** Well, I hope that the kiss was all that you y'all wanted it to be! When I was writing it, I just kept feeling like I hadn't done it enough justice. Y'all wanted it sooo much, so I hope it was enough for you! Let me know, when you review!


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Thanks for all the reviews. I promise there was a reason for Darry doing what he did. I'm glad y'all enjoyed the kiss and that chapter, I know a lot of you had been waiting for it since the first or second chapter. It's my favorite chapter that y'all have read.

**WARNING**: So this chapter contain abuse. I won't say heavy abuse, it's actually like three or four paragraphs, but it's the most graphic abuse scene in the story thus far.

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own _The Outsiders_, I'm just borrowing the characters for fun and games.

* * *

The brunette unlocked the front door and pushed her way into the house. It had taken her much longer to get home than usual. Instead of ten ,fifteen minutes, at max, it took her damn near a half an hour. She'd stopped in a parking lot, and just sat there with her head on the steering wheel for the longest, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. When she realized that she wasn't going to come to that conclusion sitting there, she pulled out and on to the road.

The living room was quiet and dark. The television was off, the lights were off, and immediately she got a bad feeling. She walked into the room slowly, trying to avoid the places she knew had squeaky floorboards. She ran her hand along the wall, feeling for the light switch. When she found it, she flicked it on, but there was no light in the room. She then flicked the light off and took several steps back, placing her foot on a squeaky floorboard.

"Jackie," her father's voice called to her from the darkness.

"Yeah?"

He didn't say anything. In the darkness, she was utterly defenseless. However, so was he. He couldn't find her. At least she hoped that he was. Her false sense of security was shattered, when she felt a pair of hands around her throat. Her body was being pushed back against the wall. His hands were ice cold as he pressed his hands against her throat. The light from outside filtered into the living room, allowing her to see the look in his eyes. She tried to escape his grip, but it was unyielding.

"You forget something?"

Her lungs began to burn as they fought to get the oxygen she so desperately needed. When she didn't answer, his hands gripped tighter on her throat. The brunette dug her nails into her father's hands. The action startled him into dropping his hold on her. She collapsed to the ground. "Yes," she gagged, as she tried to talk and inhale the air around her at the same time.

He then pressed his foot to her chest. All of the air she'd worked so hard to regain, gone in an instant. She coughed, as he reached down and grabbed her arm pulling her to a standing position. A yelp escaped her lips, and he cover her mouth with his hand.

* * *

Darry looked at the phone, and then at the clock. She still hadn't called. He then looked back at the phone and to the close again. The man stood up and picked the phone up off the receiver, dialed half of her number, and then hung up. She'd call when she wanted to call. He then trudged back to the recliner and collapsed in the chair. At first he had decided that she wasn't calling because she was still trying to sort out the kiss, and her feelings. He understood that. That kiss had brought something back for him, and he knew that it had brought something back for her. However, after the first half an hour, forty minutes, he started to be a little concerned. So he busied himself with cleaning and washing dishes. Then an hour had passed. He'd grabbed his keys and put them down several times, as well as picked the phone up and dialed pieces of her number several times.

Finally, he dialed her whole number. When the call didn't go through, he called again making sure that he had dialed the right number. After it didn't go through again, he grabbed his key off the table and walked towards the truck.

Something wasn't right.

* * *

He hit her, and he hit her again and again. The brunette couldn't stop him. Her lungs still burned. Her arms stung and smarted. Her chest hurt. Her legs ached. The most that she could do was lift her hands to cover her face. Which only work for a moment or so, because he just kept hitting her.

He had never hit her like this. He had always spent maybe a few minutes slapping at her skin, but no more than that. Sometimes he would take a break and then come back, but that was rare. Tonight, he just kept going. He would stop for a few moments, and then it would continue. He was saying something about him not being able to watch something on the television , some game or something, and that his beer was warm and tasted like piss. However, from the smell of his breath, she couldn't tell that the beer being warm has stopped him from drinking it along with whiskey. In the dark, she couldn't tell how long this was going on. She just knew that it was. It was still happening and she couldn't do anything about it.

He pulled her arms from over her face, and the back of his hand collided with the tender flesh on her cheek. The brunette yelped at the contact. The skin there smarting and stinging.

* * *

Darrel pulled his truck to a stop in the driveway just as a piercing cry greeted his ears. He didn't even bother to pull the keys out of the ignition before he jumped out of the car. He made his way up to the front door within seconds. He could hear crying from the other side of the door. Angry, Darry pushed his shoulder against the door. The street light from outside flooded the living room with light, and unveiled a sight that he was sure that he would never be able to erase.

That man, her father, stood over her with his hand open and ready to hit her. From the looks of her pale ivory skin, he had been batting at her for some time. However, the worst part of the scene was seeing Jacquelyn. Her skin was red, all of her exposed skin was the bright color, and he was sure that some of her covered skin was red as well. Her arms had spots of purple under the red markings. Her dark hair was disheveled. Her back pressed against the wall, her knees pulled to her chest, and her arms over her face. A sight that he would never be able to get rid of.

The Curtis man stepped into the house and shoved the man away from her. Her father stumbled and fell. It took anything in Darrel Curtis not to kill that man on the spot. However, as he knelt down to Jacquelyn, he felt the urge to just wrap his hands around that man's throat. He reached out to touch her gently. "Jacquelyn."

* * *

It had stopped.

Her heart was pounding in her ears, but was vaguely away of a commotion and a new amount of light in the room. However, her body was very unconcerned with all of that at the moment. Her lungs were burning from her trying to breathe so heavily. Her blood was rushing. Pain radiated through her whole body. There was not an inch of her that wasn't stinging. Her face was wet with her own tears. Her chest hurt from the constant sobbing.

But at least it had stopped.

Well at least she thought it had. Her heart rate increased again, and a new wave of panic and tears started. However, the touch wasn't like the ones before. This one was softer, as if it were trying not to hurt her.

"Jacquelyn."

Her heart stopped, as she lowered her arms from her face. As often as she'd heard her name said that way, she knew exactly who it was.

Darry.

The realization that it was him, brought a whole new wave of tears. This was the last way that she had wanted him to see her. She'd been trying to hide this from him for a month. She'd been desperately trying, and now he knew. He was going to pity her now. That was the last thing that she wanted. She didn't want anyone's pity. She didn't need it. She could handle herself. Of course, then she had to ask herself if she could handle herself how did she end up in this situation. Despite, all of that internal conflict with him being here, she was gladder that he was there than worried about him looking at her differently.

Jacquelyn leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her abdominal area aching when she did. Her small frame shook against his larger one as he tried to calm her down. He shushed her as he pulled her off the ground as gently as he could. However, she still winced in pain when he did. She leaned against him, as he cradled her in his arms.

There was a long moment where Darry's blue-green eyes hardened as he looked at her father. His heart beat sped up, at least she thought that it did. She wasn't quite sure if it was her heart beat she was feeling or his. After the moment was over, Darry left the house and went to his car.

Once there, he placed her in the cab from the passenger's side careful not to shake her or anything of the like. He then stormed around the front of the truck and hopped into the cab. Without speaking, he started the truck, put it in reverse, and pulled out of the driveway within a matter of milliseconds. His foot pressed to the pedal as the tuck sped down the road. His hands gripped the steering so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He looked down at her, "You gotta stay awake." When she didn't respond, he swerved off into a parking lot and pulled the car to a stop. "Jacquelyn."

"Hmm?"

"You still with me?" he questioned.

"Mmm-hmm," she replied.

"What's your name?" he asked as he pulled out of the parking lot and back on the road.

"Jacquelyn Kelly Ross," she mumbled.

"When is your birthday?" he asked as he turned on to his street.

"January 15th."

Darry pulled the car to a stop and was out of the vehicle again without taking the keys out of the ignition. He opened the front door, after stumbling up to it, and looked in the living room first, to see if the sofa was empty, and then in the kitchen, finding Sodapop and Steve sitting at the table playing poker. It was Steve how noticed Darry first.

"Everything okay, Superman?"

"No," Darry replied, his voice tight, as he started around the kitchen grabbing a bag to put ice in and then going down the hall to get some aspirin. "Put ice in this," he told Soda before he left the kitchen.

Soda did as told. "What's wrong?"

Darry started running water on to a clean dishrag and then turned to Soda. He took the bag of ice from Soda and handed him the wet rag. "Hold this. Steve hold the door open." The older man started out the house and to the truck. He opened the passenger side door and reached over to her. "Hey, Jacquelyn." She mumbled something back to him. "Hey, grab on." She lifted on of her arms and he ducked under it before grabbing her and lifting her out of the car.

"Is that Jacquelyn?" Steve asked as Darry approached the doorway. "Shit, that is Jacquelyn."

Soda poked his head out of the kitchen as Darry placed her on the sofa. "_Christ_, what happened to her?" Darry shooed the two of them away, as he placed the ice on her cheek. "Dare?"

Now that she was finally in good lighting, he could see the damage that was done. No matter where he looked on her face, the skin was red. The marks all overlapped, and he really couldn't tell how may times he had hit her there. However, the marks didn't look like they were going to bruise or anything, with the exception of her right cheek. Her right cheek was swollen. When he lifted the ice, he saw that there was a clean cut across her cheek, and a small amount of blood dripped from it. The skin on her neck was flaming red, the finger marks a vicious purple color under the red. When Darrel reached out to brush his fingers against her skin, she flinched away from his touch. The skin on her arms also held the crimson color. Darry sat back and ran his fingers through his hair. Everything in him told him to go and kick her old man's ass. Everything in him wanted to go and kill this sorry excuse for a man. Everything but the fact that Jacquelyn would hate it he did that. No matter how much a person had wronged her, she rarely wronged them. It wasn't in her nature to hurt others.

"Will you the first aid kit from the bathroom?" Darry asked to either one of the boys. Soda was the first to move towards the bathroom. When he returned, he placed the handle in his older brother's hand. Darry flipped the lid open and pulled out the alcohol and butterfly bandages. "You guys can get out of here. She's not gonna do anything extraordinary while ya'll are gone." Steve and Soda lingered for a moment longer, not quite ready to leave. "She's fine. I promise you." Steve and Soda said their goodnights, and Steve demanded that he be called if anything changed. Soda said that if Darry didn't, or wouldn't, call, he'd call him. With that Steve slowly edged out of the door, hoping that if he moved slowly enough then Darry would tell him what had happened to Jacquelyn, and to his car, while Soda trudged to the back of the house, but not before giving Darry the wet rag. He poured the rubbing alcohol on a swab and moved the bag of ice from her cheek again. "It's gonna sting a bit," he told her softly, he wasn't even really sure that she was awake at this point, before he placed the swab on her face. Her small hand fisted on the fabric of the sofa as he did. Darry hated that he had to hurt her more than she already was. When he removed the swab from her face, he patted the area dry and then placed a few butterfly bandages along the cut on her cheek.

"Dare?" she muttered softly. He flicked his eyes over to her briefly. "Don't."

He needed no further clarification on her order. Don't go to her house. Don't hurt her old man. That's what she was telling him. Because she'd asked him not to, he wouldn't, but that wouldn't stop him from thinking about it. The man stood and walked down the hall, and pushed his bedroom door open. He appeared back in the living room, as she was sitting up.

"Does it look awful?" she questioned. Darry looked over at her, her eye starting to show signs of swelling. He looked down at the bottle of aspirin. He twisted the top off the bottle and placed two in her hand. He moved towards the kitchen in order to get her a glass of water, but she'd popped them into her mouth and swallowed them before he could do so. "So?"

Darry arched his eyebrow and looked over her head. The more he looked at her the angry he got. The more he looked at the red marks on her face, the more he stomach twisted into knots. "It looks like your old man hit you, Jacquelyn." The brunette rolled her light eyes and exhaled. Her lungs still stinging. "And you didn't tell me. You didn't fucking tell me that your old man was hitting. Not just hitting you, beating you." The brunette flinched at his words. "Why the fuck would you not tell anyone? Why in Christ's name would you choose to endure that?"

"I didn't want you to know," she told him quietly.

"Why? I could have helped you. This," he gestured to her battered form, "could have been avoided." When she didn't say anything, he realized that yelling and lecturing her, probably wasn't the best idea. He ran his hand over his face and made his way towards her. He placed his arm under his shoulder and the other behind her knees. Without saying anything, he picked her up and made his way down the hall to his bedroom. He placed her on the bed and exhaled. "Did you hit your head?" He moved to his drawer and pulled an old t-shirt out. He placed it on the bed beside her.

"No," she said quietly as she pulled at a loose string on the bed.

"Are you sure?" he questioned as he leaned on the doorframe.

"No."

Darry sighed for the umpteenth time that night, before stepping out of the bedroom. "I'll be on the couch if you need me," he told her as he started to close the door.

"Dare?"

"Yes, Jacquelyn?" His answer held a little aggravation, not so much at her, but at the situation as a whole.

"Stay?" she questioned so softly, that he wasn't end really sure she'd even said anything.

"Change first," he told her. "I'll run your stuff through the wash" He closed the door behind him. He felt much older than his twenty years. He leaned against the door as he waited. He could not for the life of him understand why she would not tell him. He had told her that he was there for her. Darry pulled himself from his thoughts. The more he thought about it the more it made less sense to him. "Ready?" he questioned after a few minutes.

"Ready."

He pushed the door open and walked in. She was tucked under the blankets on his bed, her brown hair fanning out over the pillow. He grabbed her clothes and his sleepwear before leaving the room again. When he returned, he was wear a pair of flannel pajama pants and a white t-shirt. He pulled the blanket back and climbed into the bed next to her.

"It started when we moved back to Wisconsin," the brunette told him after a moment of them laying here. She balled the sheet in her hands as she spoke. Her hazel eyes trained to the ceiling. "I'm not really certain how it started. I just remember that it was around the time that my mother started stay out with her old friends and coming home really late. I guess I was just always in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"How long has he been a drunk?" Darry questioned as he tucked one arm behind his head.

Jacquelyn snorted in an unladylike manner, "For as long as you've known me. Years, Dare." She rolled over on her side to face him, wincing as she did. She found his hand under the blankets and her fingers laced between his. His fingers slipped between hers. "It's never been that bad. I forgot to pay the electricity bill," she told him.

Darry gently pulled her toward him. Her chest flesh with his side. Her warmth flooded through his body, and his to hers. He unlaced their fingers and brought his arm behind her head. The brunette allowed her head to rest on his chest, his heart beat flooded her ears.

"Dare?" she started slowly. He hummed acknowledging her question the sound vibrating in his chest. Her train of thought slipped as she spotted the photo on his nightstand, the corners of her lips turned up. "You still have that picture?" she questioned.

He looked over in the direction that her hazel eyes were turned. He felt his cheeks warm as he realized that the picture of them on the white stallion was still on his bedside table. "Yeah," he replied. Absentmindedly, he brushed her dark hair from her face careful not to press on her skin to hard.

"I'm sorry," she told him, her small hands fisting against the fabric of his t-shirt.

"For?"

"I didn't tell you, and you kept asking," she admitted. "I wanted to tell you, but you have so much on your plate, that I didn't want you to worry about me."

His chuckle vibrated in his chest. "I worried about you anyway."

They lay like that for a long while. His fingers tangled in her dark hair, combing through her thick locks. Her slim fingers had taken to tracing outlines of letters and shapes on his chest. Not that she knew, but his skin burned with her every stroke. Soon enough, her breathing had slowed. He looked down at her, his hand resting against his chest. Despite the marks on her skin, she looked completely relaxed. The redness on her face was starting to fade. The swelling around her eye and her cheek had lessened significantly since he'd gotten her there. He reached over, and turned off the lamp on his bedside table. He then closed his eyes allowing her soft breathing to lull him to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **I'm glad that y'all like the last chapter. So without further ado, chapter 8.

**TIMELINE:** Chapter one was one day. Chapter 2 and 3 were the next day. Chapter 4 is a week after chapter 3. Chapter 5 is three weeks after chapter 4. Chapter 6 and 7 are a week after 5. I hope this is more helpful than confusing.

**DISCLAIMER: **I still don't own _The Outsiders._

* * *

Jacquelyn sat on the Curtis' sofa with her legs crossed and her elbows on her knees as she watched the two eldest Curtis brother's carefully. The oldest was leaning against the wall across from her with his arms crossed over his chest. The middle brother was sitting on the arm of the chair next to the sofa. They were talking amongst themselves about her. However, she'd lost focus on the conversation and just settled with sitting with her legs crossed and attempting to follow the conversation. After a few moments, she even gave up on that and took to inhaling the scent of Darry's old work shirt that hung loosely on her torso. She'd been sleeping in the shirt for the past two days, and she'd feared that the scent of tar and sweet was gone but it remained.

"Jacquelyn?" Soda's voice said to her, pulling her from her tar scented trance. She turned her hazel eyes to his brown ones. "You wanna go get your stuff?"

Her thick brown eyebrow arched at his question. "I beg your pardon?"

"Have you not been listening?" Soda questioned with a goofy grin on his lips. The girl shook her head. "Ponyboy had an idea yesterday. Instead of you going back home, or looking for your own place, you can stay here."

Her hazel eyes flicked over to Darry's blue-green ones instantly. She hadn't expected him to be looking at her when she did. In fact, when she met his blue-green eyes, she looked away startled. After a second, she looked over at him again. She could see him weighing the options in his head. The financial burden of another person. The way the people from the state would look at it. However, when put against sending her back to her house, none of that mattered.

"Stay here," she echoed her eyes not leaving Darry's.

"Yeah."

"Can I?" she questioned to Darry.

He shrugged his broad shoulders, and dropped his hands to his pockets. "Yes, Jacquelyn." He looked over at the clock and then back towards her. "Get ready, so I can take you to grab your stuff."

Jacquelyn pushed herself off the sofa and started towards the bathroom. She ran her fingers through her dark brown hair and sighed. For the past two days, she'd been trying to hide the discoloration on her face. Steve had called his girlfriend, Evie, over to help with the task. However, it was impossible, the marks were dark for the makeup do even cover them a little. She brought her hazel eyes to the mirror in front of her. The bruises looked worse than they did when she'd come in earlier to brush her teeth. The pale ivory skin around her eye was an angry purple, and that purple continued to just below her cheekbone. The bruises on her neck were also an angry purple color. However, that was the worst of it. The bruise on her sternum was yellowing, as were the ones on her arms. There were a few that were the purple color, but that was minority of them. She swept her hair back from her face and sighed. She then trekked down the hall to Darry's bedroom. She grabbed her black capris and red sweater from the chair and tugged them on. When she appeared in the living room, Soda was gone and Darry was sitting in the recliner with his hand over his eyes.

"Are you sure it's okay?" she questioned as she sat on the arm of the chair.

Darry dropped his arm from his eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure." He looked over at her and brought his hand up to her chin. Gently, he moved her face with his thumb and index finger, eyeing the bruises on her face. "They look better," he mused. He brought his index finger up the bruise on her cheek, and she flinched away from his touch. "Sorry." He pushed himself out of the chair and grabbed the keys. "You ready?"

"Yeah," she said slowly as she stood and tailed him outside to the truck.

* * *

The brunette unlocked the front door to her father's place, and slowly walked in with Darry all of five inches behind her. She could feel his warm breath on the back of her neck, and it sent chills down her spine. She noted that the lights were still off, as she made her way to her bedroom. Once they were secure in her bedroom, Jacquelyn closed the door behind them and pulled two suitcases, one average sized and the other more of a travel bag, from under her bed. Realizing that it was going to be impossible to pack in the dark, she pulled open the curtains allowing the light from outside to enter the room. She stood in the middle of the bedroom for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to get what she needed out. After that moment was up, she started walking around the bedroom strategically packing clothes into her suitcase.

All of twenty, thirty minutes later, the brunette zipped her suitcases. She turned over her shoulder and pulled the quilt off of the bed, unzipped the larger suitcase and tucked it away. Afterwards, she dropped little things into the suitcase. A photo album from her bed side table drawer, her hairbrush, a necklace, a small teddy bear that Darry instantly recognized, and a name tag. She then slipped out of the door and down the hall into the bathroom. When she returned, she dropped her toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, two smaller toiletry bags, and shampoo into the bag. Darry was grateful that she'd remembered the shampoo. Her citrus scent had faded and he would never admit it to anyone, not even himself, but his missed it. She grabbed her jacket off her bed and tossed it over her shoulder before she zipped the bag up and handed the heavier one to Darry. The brunette then reached over her bed and pulled the curtains shut.

She opened the door and walked out of her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She then tailed Darry into the living room, only stopping to pick up the car keys on her way out. It was her car after all; they, her old man and old lady, handed the keys over to her as a graduation present. The brunette looked over the living room, one last time before Darry called her name. She looked her shoulder at him, a smile playing her lips, as she walked towards him and out of the door.

* * *

That night, Jacquelyn sat with her legs crossed on Darry's bed, in her flannel pajama pants and one of Darry's too-big t-shirts that she'd grown so fond of, as he prepped his clothes for work the next morning. He pulled out a shirt that was folded so neatly it looked like something out of a cartoon. He then pushed that drawer shut, and then pulled open the drawer that held his jeans. Again, his jeans were folded so perfectly that she could barely fathom how that was even possible. He must have realized that she was watching him, because he looked over his shoulder with an amused look on his face.

"Can I help you?" he questioned as he pushed the pants drawer shut and then sat on the bed. He pressed his back to the headboard and swung his feet on to the bed. Jacquelyn leaned back against the headboard as well, before she tucked herself against Darry's side. "

"I was just watching," she told him. "I don't think that I've even seen clothes folded that perfectly in my whole life," she teased. "I'm not sure how you're gonna live with me."

Darry paused for a moment, taking in her statement. Somewhere in his mind, he was enjoying the feel of her body tucked against his. He was enjoying the fact that they had been sharing a bed for two days. He was enjoying having her around. However, there were other things that he needed to focus on. Bills and work. He didn't have time to enjoy himself. "You're gonna fold your clothes," he told her.

"I can't promise that they will look like that," she said. Darry rolled his eyes. "I don't even know how that could even happen."

"What?"

"How that shirt is folded so perfectly," she exclaimed playfully. She pointed at it dramatically, "Look at it. It looks like servants from the Queen of some far away land folded them!"

"A far away land?" Darry questioned. "What land would that be?"

"The magical land of Maine," she responded immediately.

That was something that Darry had always admired about her. She was capable of making up the most incredible things. Sometimes, most the time, they were incredibly silly. However, it wasn't the seriousness of what she said, it was the fact that those answers come so quickly. She even thought about them, she just said them. She never worried what other people would say about it or her, she just lived her life the way that she wanted to.

"I see," Darry mused.

The brunette bit on the side of lip for a moment before looking over at him. "Are you sure you're okay with this?" She asked. She wasn't quite sure how he really felt about the whole new living situation idea. She had asked him several times and he never really answered her.

"I told you I was," he replied. He could feel her watching him through narrow eyes. He ran his hand over his face and looked up at the white ceiling. "Look, I don't want you to go back there, that's the last thing I want for you. I was not opposed to you finding your own place. However, that would mean that you needed a place to stay until you did. Then it didn't make sense for us to put you out."

She wasn't quite sure that she understood. Her moving in made sense. Her thick eyebrows knitted together. "So you didn't me to move in?"

"I didn't say that," Darry said as he reached over and turned the lamp on the bedside table off.

Jacquelyn reached over and turned the light back on. "What did you say?"

Darry rolled his blue-green eyes and looked down at her. "I said that it made sense."

"Which means?"

"It made sense," Darry said exasperatedly. "It made sense to have you here."

"To who?"

"To me!" he said finally. Jacquelyn looked started at his outburst. "It made sense to me to have you here. It's easier to look out for you, if you're here."

The brunette thought of a moment, before she pulled the blanket back and tucked herself under it. If her safely was his main concern then she could deal with that. However, for some reason she didn't quite believe that that was only reasoning for having her stay with them. She felt him settling into the bed under sheets.

"You could have just said that," she told him before she rolled over on her side and pressed her body to his.

No matter how many times she did this particular action, chill always ran down Darry's spine. The two of them had been sleeping this way, with her curled against his side and his arm around her, since she'd her first night. The first night it took him some getting used to. As she exhaled on to his skin, his hair stood on end and sent chills over his entire body. The next night, wasn't as bad. The chills came when her small hand fisted against the skin of his bare chest. It might not have been the action itself, but the way that she did it so subtly, as if she was so comfortable with it. When he came home from work the day before, he took off his work belt and shoes, and the made his way into the living room. She was lounging on the sofa reading the paper. He greeted her as he sat next to her, and she was quiet for a long moment. In fact, she never actually greeted him. The next thing he knew, she'd sat up and had her side pressed against his. She thought nothing of it. It was almost like it was a natural process for her.

* * *

"Oh my."

Those were Gina's first words to Jacquelyn when she walked into work after four days of not coming in. Jacquelyn's cheeks tinted pink at her words as she ducked her head, trying to hide her face. The bruises had started to fade. It took her forever to cover the purple on her skin, but she'd finally managed to cover it. For the most part. They were covered just enough to get by, but not enough for people to not notice. Jacquelyn made a beeline for the back room where she clocked in. When she turned around Gina was standing in behind her.

"Oh. My!" Gina exclaimed as she took a good look at the brunette. "What-? Where-?"

"Don't worry 'bout it," the brunette told her as she attempted to move around her blond friend.

"Where are you staying?" the blond asked finally.

"With a friend," Jacquelyn replied. Gina glared at Jacquelyn, letting her know that it wasn't enough. "I'm okay, honest."

"Can you at least tell me where you are staying?"

Jacquelyn shook her head as she grabbed a box of records and ducked under Gina's arm to make her way to the front of the store. Gina tailed her, continuing to ask where she was staying. Jacquelyn started to place the records in their appropriate location. After she finished with that box, she looked over at the time. Seeing that it was time to open, she flipped the open sign and unlocked the door. As she ducked under the counter to open the register, Gina appeared next to her.

"What Gina?" the brunette sighed while she opened a roll of nickels.

"Where are you-"

"With Darry Curtis and his brother," the brunette answered without letting her friend finish. She counted the dimes in her drawer quickly, before opening another roll of dimes and pouring them into the compartment.

"Your ex," Gina replied. Jacquelyn nodded. The blond leaned against the counter as Jacquelyn closed the drawer and a customer walked in. The two girls greeted the boy as he walked over to the rows of records. They were quiet for a moment before Gina spoke again. "Well, why didn't you tell me?"

Jacquelyn shrugged. "Darry just kinda placed himself in the situation."

That was the truth, right? She hadn't told him to show up at her house like some knight in shining armor or anything. She'd never do that. He had just appeared in her doorway like a knight. Not that she wasn't thankful.

"Oh," Gina said. "You still could have called me."

"Didn't want you to worry," Jacquelyn responded.

"Didn't work." Gina replied as she looked at the bruise on her friend's face. "You old man did that?" The brunette nodded. "You should have let Darry kill him." Jacquelyn chuckled. "What happened?"

"This is not the appropriate place to discuss this," Jacquelyn stated, as the boy walked up to the counter with a record in his hand. "Hey. That's fifty cent." The boy gave her exact change as she bagged it. "Have a nice day."

"So?" Gina started slowly as she looked at the brunette. Jacquelyn arched her eyebrow. "What happened?"

"I didn't play the electric bill," the brunette told her blond friend. "Look I don't really wanna talk about it much more than that."

Gina nodded, understanding, but she didn't move from her spot leaning on the counter. "What?" Jacquelyn sighed, knowing that she wanted more.

"You kissed him yet?"

The brunette pushed the blond from behind the register and rolled her eyes. "I'm not discussing this with you right now."

"You're right," Gina agreed. "Over lunch is more suitable."

* * *

When Jacquelyn walked into the Curtis residence, she was startled by the flurry of motion going on. Ponyboy was arranging the pillows on the sofa, trying his best to his the rips in the fabric. Soda was sweeping, well attempting to, he was actually just sliding around in his socks with the broom in his hand. The brunette placed her shoes in the closet by the door and walked into the living room. As she did, Darry called her name. When she looked over in his direction, he tossed a rag to her.

"Polish the table," he told her before turning back to clearing off the kitchen table.

The hazel eyeed girl started on the task at hand, hoping over the small pile of dirt as she went into the kitchen. She pulled the bottle of polish from its place under the sink and made her way back to the living room. Ponyboy had cleared out of the room, giving her the space around the table. She uncapped the bottle and poured the polish on the cloth. While Soda finally got to sweeping, she polished the table in the living room until it looked brand new. The smell of lemon filling the small room, and competing with the smell of bleach coming from the kitchen. Ponyboy opened the window in the living room, reliving her from the mixing scents. When Darry looked over into the living room, he nodded in approval, saying something along the lines of the table never looking that good. By the end of the day, Jacquelyn had polished the table, mopped the floor, washed and folded three loads of laundry, bleached the bathtub, and straightened up the medicine cabinet.

When she walked into the bedroom that she and Darry shared, she flopped down on the bed and exhaled. She sat up quickly, her brown hair flying over her shoulders, when she heard a floorboard creak in the room. A tired looking Darry Curtis sat on the bed. He offered her a mug and when questioned about its contents, he told her it was tea. The brunette took the mug from him and took a long sip, as he relaxed into the pillows behind him.

"The lady from the state is coming tomorrow," Darry told her, clarifying why there was the flurry of cleaning. The brunette nodded as she brought the mug to her lips. "She wants to talk to you," he revealed after a moment. "You know, to see what's going on and if you're a good figure to have around."

"What do I do?" she asked carefully.

"Answer her questions honestly," Darry said with a shrug of his shoulders. He winced slightly as he tried to roll his shoulders, an attempt to relax the muscles. Jacquelyn placed the mug on the bedside table and pushed on his side. "Hmm?"

"I'm gonna massage out the knot in your shoulders," she told him. "So you can sit on the floor or lay on your back," she told him. He looked at her for a long moment. "Move it, Curtis!" she demanded, trying her best to sound at least a little intimidating. It didn't work, and Darry laughed as he pushed himself into a sitting position on the floor. The brunette pushed herself over to the edge of the bed and then placed her legs on either side of Darry's body. She then slid her hands under the fabric of his shirt, her thumb running along his back to find the knot in his back. Once she did, her fingers started to knead against his skin. "You worried?"

"Hmm?" he replied.

"About the lady from the state?"

Darry shrugged, and she could feel his muscles flexing and relaxing. "I always am."

"I get paid tomorrow," she told him, as she pressed harder on the knot. "I can go to the store after work and grab some stuff. Just some basics, eggs, milk, cheese, bread."

"Would you?" he asked as he looked over his shoulder at her. He would have never asked her to do that. It just wouldn't have been a thought he had. He'd been taking care of his brother's for ten months or so, he was nowhere near being an expert at the task, but he was doing alright, and he'd never asked anyone for money. He just wasn't in the place to own anyone anything.

"Yeah," she replied.

Suddenly, he reached up and took her hand from under his shirt. His fingertips hooking with hers, until he was able to turn her hand over and lace his fingers between hers. His actions were slow but purposeful. He brought her hand up to his lips, pressing his lips to her hand in a silent thank you. The brunette slipped down to the floor beside him, and then moved so that she was sitting in front of him. Their clasped hands falling on her knee.

Looking up at her, he swept a strand of her dark hair from her hazel eyes before letting his hand fall from to the floor. Her hazel eyes greeted his blue-green ones when she looked up. Unconsciously, she licked her lips as he watched her. Her eyes feel on the open door for a moment, but then realized that Soda had taken Ponyboy out, she thought for a moment but couldn't remember, somewhere for the night. Probably the drive-in with the boys. When her hazel eyes met his again, she titled her head to the side a bit, curious as to why he was watching her so intensely. As if he was trying to read what was going on in her head.

"You know you could just ask," she told him quietly, her voice barely above a whisper, as she shifted in her spot a little.

"Huh?"

"What I was thinking? If you wanted to know you could have asked."

Darry watched her for another long moment, before shifting in his spot as well. Their shifting caused them to be closer. His azure eyes searched her face, and she felt oddly self-conscious while he did, and she licked her lips again, dragging her teeth along her bottom lip as he watched her. She supposed that was his undoing. He reached his hand across to her cheek, his thumb absentmindedly running over the raised scar on her cheek, and his lips pressed to hers. This kiss was different from the first. The first had held a bit of innocence. This one was something more. His hands tangled in her dark hair as he pulled her closer. He kissed her long and hard; the citrus scent from her hair engulfing him. This kiss was more desperate. He was desperate to feel her smooth lips against his; desperate to touch her; desperate to feel her touch; desperate to tell her. He'd never been good with words, especially with her, he always worked off his actions. When she was upset, he made her feel better. When she was sick, he took care of her. When she wanted something within reason, he tried his best to get it for her. He loved her now as he loved her then. He loved her, and he was sure that he hadn't told her enough. He was desperate to tell her that he loved her, but couldn't find the words to tell her.

She pulled on the front of his shirt, making their bodies touch. She could feel how much he wanted this. How much he wanted her to know that he wanted this. She knew that he wasn't the best with words, never had been, and if it was possible he got worse when his parents died. She watched him keep everything locked up, until it just came out as him being angry. But he wanted this, whatever this was, he wanted it. Who was she to deny him anything? Her hands slipped under his shirt, her hands pressing against the warm skin under his work shirt.

He tugged her closer, because the amount of contact she'd initiated wasn't cutting it for him. He felt her body fall forward as she shifted her position. His skin burned under her fingertips. His body seemed to be over responding to her touch. Any part of his skin that she touched sizzled. He hoped that she was able to understand his actions, because he wasn't quite sure that he did. His hands slipped under her shirt, caressing the warm skin beneath. The brunette let out an involuntary gasp as his fingers touched her skin. If her dragging her teeth across her bottom lip had undone him, then he wasn't sure what her gasp did to him. He pulled her closer, her legs on either side of his body. His hands settled on the curve of her side as her fingers clasped behind his neck.

Every part of her body tingled. From the roots of her thick brown hair to her toes. Everything tingled. The brunette found her fingers working at the buttons on the front of his shirt. Once she'd gotten to the last button, she trailed her fingers along the contours of his chest. As her fingers trailed along the ridges of his muscles, he said her name. The husky, breathy tone of his voice undid her. How easily he'd said it; how easily her name had slipped off his lips pushed her to the edge. Now even her eardrums tingled. She was quite literally putty in his hands. She pushed his shirt from his shoulders, her hands coming to clasp behind his neck again. The cool air of his home chilled her skin, as he pulled his _University of Tulsa Football_ t-shirt from her body, leaving her in her loose flannel pajama bottoms and black bra.

Jacquelyn pressed her hands against his chest and her forehead to his. They were both panting, their chests rising and falling in sync. His blue-green eyes met her hazel ones, searching. A smile found its way to her lips, at least she was pretty sure that it did, with her body tingling the way that it wasn't she wasn't quite sure if the smile looked the way it should. She knew what he wanted. She knew exactly what it was. However, she allowed him to search her eyes for it. His hands stay on her hips as he waited. He waited for her. He waited for her to say what he'd been trying to say to her for days.

"I love you too."

When she said it, his lips were on hers again. His fingers expertly unclasping the clasp of her bra. When his action was complete, she shrugged the offending article of clothing off. It was then that he picked her up, her legs secure around his waist and dropped her on the bed. Her laugh was music to his ears. He pushed the bedroom door shut, although he knew his brothers weren't going to be home anytime soon. He pressed his lips against her neck as his body hovered over hers. Then his lips met hers, effectively stopping her girlish giggles, and furthering the actions that lay ahead for that night.

* * *

**A/N: **Yay! I'm sure that this will make some of you really happy. It only took forever to get here, right? Well we will just see what happens next, won't we?


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Hey there! has it really been that long? I must have lost track of time or something. This chapter has been sitting in the doc manager since I posted the last chapter. Thanks for reviewing and reminding me that I needed to update. You guys are on top of your game. I"ll try to post twice this week.

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own _The Outsiders._

* * *

He hadn't really known if the events of last night had actually occurred. Everything was just so dream-like that he was sure that it had never happened. When he awoke, he felt her body pressed against his. Nothing unusual there. She slept that way every night. She looked down at her disheveled dark brown hair and the bare pale ivory skin of her shoulder. He was taken aback by the skin of her shoulder. She always slept with a shirt on, it was the way of her nature. The brunette shifted in her sleep, and the shift revealed more of her pale ivory skin. He couldn't help but wince at the still bruised, but rapidly healing, skin on her upper back. However, it was then that he came to the realization that she was naked, as was he.

Bits and piece of their dream-like night started to come back to him. Her pulling off his jeans. Him tugging off her pajama bottoms. Her slender fingers tracing across his skin. His hands sliding down her torso. Her moaning his name over and over, and his body reacting to it accordingly. Her nails sliding down his back, and him saying her name. For a long moment, he lay next to her. After his moment was over, he gently moved her smaller body away from his and then got out of the bed, careful not to make too much noise. He grabbed his pajamas that never actually made it to his body, and dressed in them before walking out of the bedroom.

The house was still spotless, and he intended to keep it that way. As he made the coffee, he made sure to go back after himself and wipe down the counter. He was pouring the coffee into the cup when he heard a floorboard creak behind him. He'd expected to see Soda or Ponyboy, but instead saw the brunette with the disheveled hair that he'd left in bed.

"What are you doing up?" he questioned.

"The bed gets cold when you leave," she told him as she walked over and took the mug of coffee before he could take a sip out of it. "Thanks."

He watched her as she walked out of the kitchen and sunk into the chair in the living room. Darry poured himself another mug of coffee and then tailed her into the living room. The brunette was almost asleep in the recliner when Darry took the mug from her hand and placed it on top of a magazine. She started awake as he picked her up from the chair, sat down, and allowed her to collapse on to his lap. She had acquired more clothing than she had when she was in bed. His _University of Tulsa Football_ t-shirt covered her torso and most of her upper legs, and her flannel pajama bottoms covered her the rest of her legs. He bought his mug to his lips as she tucked her head under his chin. She reached over to grab her cup and mimicked his action of drinking the warm beverage.

"If you had just stay put, I would have brought this to you," he told her.

"Eh," she mumbled against the cup.

A door down the hall opened and a messy hair Sodapop Curtis appeared in the hall. He took a moment to take in the sight before him. His brother sitting in his chair. Nothing crazy there. However, the small brunette woman that accompanied him, sitting on his lap with her head tucked under his chin, made the sight a little odd. Not too odd though. The two of them had been skirting around this kind of action for as long as Jacquelyn had been back in Tulsa.

"Nice night?" Soda mused as he ran his fingers through his dark hair. Jacquelyn rolled her eyes at Soda, but didn't respond to him. Darry just pretended that he'd never said anything to him. Jacquelyn could see a smile forming on SOda's lips. "Well, I'll take that as a yes."

The brunette shifted as she finished her cup of coffee. Darry's eyebrow arched as he watched her. He'd never had much interaction with her before she had coffee in her system, and she'd often told him that she was nothing before her cup of joe, as she called it. She wasn't the same person that was for sure.

Lazily, she slipped from his lap to the floor. "Work," she moaned before she flopped over on to her side. Darry chuckled from his spot above her. "Idonwannago," she mumbled into her arm.

"You're doing a half day, Jacquelyn," he told her.

"Work," she moaned again as she rolled over on to her back. She turned her hazel eyes over to him and sighed. She then sat up and huffed loudly. "Work."

Darry rolled his eyes as he got out of the chair and stepped over her. The brunette followed suit and stood up. She then made her way down the hall back to the bedroom and grabbed her outfit for the day, a pink sweater and black pedal pushers. The brunette then made her way to the bathroom. "Out, Soda," she called through the door, "I swear you and Ponyboy take forever to do hair."

"Can't rush this beauty," he teased her though the door.

"Out!"

Soda chuckled as he walked out of the bathroom and bowed in front of her. "It's all yours, pretty lady."

"Gee, thanks," she teased as she walked in and closed the door behind her.

* * *

The work day was relatively slow. Few customers walked in and even fewer bought anything. The two girls and their boss had a quiet day. Gina worked the floor, straightening records and placing them back were they belonged. Jacquelyn spent the majority of her day reading a magazine that she'd plucked off the shelf with Gina occasionally stopping to read an article from the other side of the counter. During one of those points, the brunette moved her long hair from her shoulder to scratch the side of her neck, and Gina gasped.

Jacquelyn's hazel eyes snapped up to her friend as she paused her scratching motion. "What?"

"Your neck," Gina gasped as she pulled a small compact from her pocket and opened it, the mirror facing her friend. The look that crossed Jacquelyn's face was priceless. Her face turned a red color and her hazel eyes grew wide. Her eyebrows lifted and her lips frowning. "You wanna explain?"

On her neck, just above a thumb mark that was now possible to hide with makeup, was a red mark, not a large one and not noticeable until she moved her hair, but a red mark nonetheless. She ran her fingers over the mark, her thoughts traveling back to the night before. She honestly hadn't remembered him giving her that mark. If she had, she would have looked for it more carefully and covered it when she put on her makeup.

"Explanation?" Gina demanded when she closed the compact.

Jacquelyn rolled her eyes and covered the mark with her hand. "It's nothing."

"It's a hickey!" Gina informed.

"It's a red mark," Jacquelyn contradicted.

"On your neck, and that makes it a hickey."

Jacquelyn rolled her light eyes and exhaled. "I guess so," the brunette said, admitting defeat. "I'm pretty sure that there's no explanation needed. I'm sure you know how people get them." Jacquelyn's face was uncharacteristically red as she continued to speak, until she just let her voice trail off, her face too red to even continue speaking.

"Oh, my God!" Gina exclaimed as she slapped her palms down on the counter in front of her. The smile on Gina face only made Jacquelyn's face turn redder, and that only made the smile on Gina face grow. The cycle continued until Jacquelyn lay her forehead on the counter in front of her and felt like she wanted to disappear. "Oh my God!" Gina said again. "You slept with him?" Jacquelyn nodded against the counter. "Oh my God!"

"Shhh," the brunette hushed as she picked her forehead off the counter.

"Oh my God!"

"Stop saying that," Jacquelyn demanded.

"Was it good?" The brunette dropped her face the counter again to hide the blush that was covering her face again. Good would probably be a slight understatement. "Oh my God!" Gina repeated as Jacquelyn sank down to the floor behind the counter. "Jacquelyn! Oh my God!" Jacquelyn mumbled something from the floor. "Was it? Was it good?"

"Gina," Jacquelyn whined.

"Was it?"

Jacquelyn was quiet for a moment, trying to let the color settle on her face. However, as she started to think of a way to answer Gina's question the color started to return to her face. She remember her fingers tangling in his hair and tracing down the ridges of his muscles. Her lips on his and her skin tingling wherever he touched her. "Yeah."

"You have to tell me!" Gina shouted as she ducked under the counter and behind the register where Jacquelyn was sitting. "Everything!"

Jacquelyn lay her forehead on her knees and sighed, her face continuing to redden.

* * *

The brunette pushed open the door with her foot and pulled her shoes off and pushed them into the closet by the door. With her hands full, she made her way to the kitchen where she spotted Ponyboy sitting at the table. When he looked up, and saw that her hands were full he moved away from the table and grabbed one of the bags from her. She flashed him a soft smile as they started putting the groceries away. Nothing spectacular. Two dozen eggs, a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, a block of cheese, mix for chocolate cake, frosting, a few oranges and apples, some chicken, and vegetables. When they finished unpacking, Ponyboy stored the bags under the counter and sat back down at the table.

"You look worried," Ponyboy noted as he watched her rub an apple on her pink sweater.

"Do I?" she questioned as she looked down at the apple before passing it between her hands. "I guess I am."

Ponyboy shrugged and leaned back in his chair. The blond was still prominent in his hair, but the red was making a comeback. "It's not that bad. She always talks to you wherever you feel the most comfortable, and she's not mean or nothing."

"Yeah?" Jacquelyn responded as she continued to pass the apple between her small hands. "I don't know, I just don't wanna screw up anything, ya' know?"

"What are you gonna screw up?" Ponyboy questioned as he looked at her over his shoulder.

The brunette shrugged and pushed her dark hair behind her ear. "I don't know if she's gonna like me being here, given what I got at home." Unconsciously, she made a gesture to the still fading, but nicely covered, bruise and cut on her face.

"We all got our issues," Ponyboy told her. Jacquelyn nodded. "She's talking to Soda now," he told her. "They always talk back in our room. I guess Soda feels better there."

"She talk to Darry?" she questioned. Ponyboy nodded. "Where at?"

"The living room."

"And you?"

Ponyboy shrugged as he pushed himself out of the chair. "We talked before Soda. We talked in the living room today, but sometimes we talk in our bedroom like Soda, or outside on the porch. It all depends."

Before Jacquelyn could say anything in respond, the door down the hall opened and the sound of clicking heels and a polite voice greeted her ears. Ponyboy nodded answering her unasked question. That was the voice of the lady from the state. Sodapop's voice greeted her ears as they neared the kitchen. Suddenly, she was no longer worried. She was just really nervous. Her heart was pounding under her pink sweater. Her hands were clammy as she passed the apple between her hands.

"Hey, there she is," Soda's voice said. "Jac." The brunette looked up into Soda's bright brown eyes as he addressed her as only he could. A soft smile played on his lips when he saw the look of panic that briefly etched across her face. "Jacquelyn, this is Miss. Newton. Miss. Newton, Jacquelyn Ross."

The brunette heard the woman's heels clicking towards her, and she took that as a signal to place the apple on the table and meet the woman halfway. Miss. Newton was a slender woman. Her red hair was cut short into something that resembled a bob. There were freckles on her cheeks and over the bridge of her nose. She had green eyes, piercing green eyes. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, as she approached the brunette in the small kitchen. However, when Jacquelyn shook her hand, a smile came on to her thin lips. She was dressed much like Jacqueline Kennedy, well at least that's what Jacquelyn thought.

"Jacquelyn," Miss. Newton greeted. "Pleased to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine," the brunette answered as she tried to keep her calm.

"Where would you like to talk?" the woman asked.

"Here, I suppose."

Miss. Newton agreed and took a seat at the side of the table. Jacquelyn followed suit sitting across from her, with the apple in her hands again. Sodapop and Ponyboy exited the room, and went outside. With the boys gone, the air seemed to get heavier. The brunette started to push the apple around between her hands as she waited. "You don't have to be nervous."

Jacquelyn shook her head, "I'm not."

Miss. Newton nodded. "Well tell me about yourself."

Jacquelyn looked at the apple as she rolled it across the table. "Well, I'm Jacquelyn. I'm twenty. I'm from Wisconsin. My dad got transferred here five, six years ago, and we moved here. Um, I graduated from Will Rogers High School, and went to University of Tulsa for a few months. Then my parents were having some problems," she cleared her throat, "my dad had an affair and my mother thought that taking him away from it would solve it."

"He continued the affair?"

"No, just decided that he was going to be a full-time drunk instead of a part time drunk. So she kicked him out, and we moved back right at the start of summer."

"How do you know the Curtis'?"

Jacquelyn smiled a bit. "Darry and I go back to sophomore year of high school. We dated for three years in school, and then we both got accepted to University of Tulsa."

"Serious?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Was it serious? The dating?" Miss. Newton questioned as she watched the apple that Jacquelyn was rolling between her hands.

"I would say so," Jacquelyn responded, as she pressed her thumb against the apple to make herself stop pushing it around.

"So what happened?"

"Pardon?" Jacquelyn questioned, one of her dark eyebrows arched.

"Why did the two of you breakup?" the woman asked.

Jacquelyn arched her eyebrow again. What kind of question was that? She knew the answer to that. "His parents died."

"Right," the woman said. She'd known the answer to that question and Jacquelyn wasn't sure why she'd even asked. "Where do you work?" Miss. Newton asked.

"Penny's, its record store."

"Any criminal background?"

"No."

The woman leaned forward in her seat, placing her elbows on the table, before asking her next question, "What happened to your face?"

"My dad's a drunk and he was hitting on me for a few months," Jacquelyn said quietly, as she started to roll the apple again.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Why made him stop?"

Jacquelyn laughed softly. "Darry did. He came and got me," she told the lady in front of her. "I've been here for maybe five days."

"Your neck too?" Miss. Newton questioned as she gestured towards her.

Jacquelyn brought her hand up to her neck, apparently she hadn't covered them as well as she thought she had. Or maybe Darry had just told Miss. Newton about the mark and she knew exactly where to look. "Yes, ma'am."

Miss. Newton was quite as she looked at the brunette across from her. Her green eyes pierced Jacquelyn's skin as she watched her, and Jacquelyn shifted uncomfortable under her gaze. She pushed the apple between her hands, careful not to meet the older woman's stare.

"Would you like to know what the boy's said about you?" Miss. Newton asked. Before Jacquelyn could respond, she started speaking again. "Sodapop said that you were a real gem, one of a kind, and that you kicked his ass in poker. He says that you're like the sister he never had, or really wanted. Ponyboy thinks that you're kind to a fault. He said that you literally go out of your way to help people, and that someone like you doesn't deserve to have to deal with what you had to deal with." The brunette ducked her head to cover the still fading bruise on her cheek under her makeup. "Darrel had an interesting answer. He said that you grate his nerves and that your energy drives him up a wall sometimes," Jacquelyn frowned; did he really say that? "However, he said that the end of the day you're still one of the best things he has in his life. Now, you know Darrel as well as, or better than I do, that's not an easy thing for him to admit. So when I came to talk to you, I was excited to see the girl that has Darrel Curtis so smitten, but I'm not seeing that. You want me to like you, I get that, but I'm not the bad guy here. Okay?" Jacquelyn nodded. "Alright, so I'm just trying to talk to you."

Jacquelyn pushed the apple to the side and ran her fingers through her hair. "I don't want to mess up what they have here," she told Miss. Newton. "I'm trying not to interfere with their family dynamic."

"I understand that. I'm not trying to get you to say anything that would cause you to do that." Miss. Newton looked over the brunette. "You're not a violent person?" The brunette shook her head. "And you're contributing to the household funds?" Jacquelyn nodded. "How much?" The brunette's cheeks flushed and she told the woman. "Alright." Miss. Newton's eyes scanned over the brunette. "Are you and Darrel romantically involved?"

Honestly, she really had no idea how to answer that question. Last night had been beyond perfect for her. She was ready to put everything that she had into whatever it was that they had. However, she hadn't actually discussed it with him. She hadn't really had the chance to talk to him about it.

"Ponboy thinks that you are," Miss. Newton informed before she could answer. "He says that you look at him like he's the only person in the room."

"Ponyboy is much too observant for his own good," the brunette mumbled.

"Sodapop is convinced that you are."

"Sodapop is a hopeless romantic," Jacquelyn answered. "I believe that we are," she finally replied after a moment of thought.

Miss. Newton nodded. "I think that Darrel needs someone in his life. You seem like a nice young lady; more concerned with keeping them a family than your own needs. I'll be around sometimes two weeks from now. You know making sure the house is still running. We will talk at then."

"So I can stay?" she questioned as the red haired lady stood up.

The woman tucked a strand of her short red hair behind her ear and started out of the kitchen. As she did, the front door opened and closed, and Darrel Curtis appeared in the doorway. He greeted Miss. Newton as he walked in, shaking her hand. She said something to him quietly and he answered her at the same volume before his blue-green eyes turned to her. Jacquelyn in turn bit her bottom lip and flashed in a sideways smile. Darry then turned back to Miss. Newton and mumbled something else. It was Miss. Newton's turn to turn her piercing green eyes to her. The woman nodded and then took another step towards the door before turning to look at Jacquelyn.

"For the time being, you can stay."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** Hey there! Here's the chapter that I promised! Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. I love them, they really make my day. Reviews make my day the most, so everyone review! It makes me happy and post faster.

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own _The Outsiders._

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Darrel heard her car pull up in the driveway. A smile that he had no control over came to his lips as he read the paper in front of him. She would come bouncing into the house, her dark hair floating behind her, put her shoes in the closet, and then flop down on the sofa. That had been her daily routine for the past week and a half. Ever since Miss. Newton told her that she could stay, she'd been more than pleased, and if he allowed himself to admit it he was pleased as well. When he didn't hear her light footsteps on the porch a few minutes after he heard her car pull to a stop, he looked over the top of the paper. Faintly, he could hear the car still running outside. Something didn't feel quite right about this.

The man stood up from the chair, and left the paper open to the sports section on the table. After pulling on his shoes, he started outside. He could see her in the driver's seat, her forehead pressed against the steering wheel, and her hands on the top of the wheel. Darry walked towards her car, and as he could closer it became clearer that she was crying. He pulled on the outside door handle, and opened the door.

"Jacquelyn," he said to her quietly. Loud enough to catch her attention, but quiet enough to not startle her.

"Hmm?"

"What happened?"

She shook her head against the steering wheel and took a long, shaky breath. After a moment, she sat back in the seat and wiped her under her eyes with her thumbs, carefully removing any of the makeup that had started to run from under her eyes. She then grabbed napkin from her dashboard, angled the rearview mirror down towards her, and wiped her cheeks. She then pushed the mirror back to its appropriate position and looked over at him. Her light eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks tear stained.

"Wanna go for a drive with me?"

How could he saw no to her? He could hardly say no to her when she wasn't crying and looking at him through bloodshot eyes. He never said anything, he just walked around to the passenger side of the car and slipped into the car. After a moment, he looked over at her and she pulled the car out of park. He watched her as she looked over her shoulder to back out and into the road.

They headed east. The route was all too familiar for them. In springtime, Jacquelyn loved to see the flowers in bloom. She loved to be in nature. So one weekend, Darry took her to a place that he and his father had found on a camping trip they'd gone on. It was a small but beautiful lake surrounded by trees that were filled with songs bids and woodland creatures. There was a rope swing that was attached to one of the trees near the lake and they'd spent the day swing off the rope and falling into the cool water. That was where she was going. When she pulled off the main road and on to a dirt road, he knew that his assumption was correct. As her car rolled, dirt clouded around it. When she finally came to a stop, there was a dirt cloud behind the vehicle as far as the eye could see.

"What happened?" Darry questioned again as she pulled the car into park and turned it off.

"I went to pay the bills at home," she told him as she looked out of the windshield, her hazel eyes focused somewhere in the tree line. "So I went to the office before work this morning and paid, they said that it should be working by lunch or so, so I went home after work to see if the lights were on. I walked in the door and flicked on the lights, and the lights were working. So, then I went to the kitchen, no food, and my dad's nowhere to be found. So I hung out for a little bit, and he walked in about fifteen minutes later. He looked at me and then came over and hugged me, Dare this man hasn't hugged me since I was like ten. He said that he's so sorry, as he looked at my face, my neck, and that he wants to get clean. He said that he went to a job interview and everything." She brushed her hair over her shoulder. "I've heard this before ya' know? He always wants to get clean, he never does. He said that when mom said that she wanted him gone. He said that when she presented him with divorce papers. He's never done it. So I didn't believe him, and I just stood up and told him that I would like to see that, kinda like snarky ya' know. He said that he needs my help."

"And?" Darry pushed after she'd allowed her voice to trail off.

The brunette then resumed the position that she was in when he walked out of the house. Her hands at the top of the steering wheel, gripping it firmly, and her forehead pressed to the wheel. She continued in a much quieter voice than she'd started in. "I told him that I couldn't help him. If he wanted to get clean to go get help or something. He said that he needed support for me." She paused again, and before Darry could push her to finish, she got out of the car.

"Jacquelyn?"

The brunette tugged her navy sweater off and dropped it on the ground. She then kicked off her shoes. Darry stepped out of the car as well. His hands in his pockets as he watched her retreating figure. She pushed through overgrown grass and weeds, as she made her way to the rope swing. When she reached her destination, she grabbed the rope and pulled it towards her.

"Jacquelyn," Darry called out to her as she placed her feet on the lower knot. He looked up, the rope was old, as was the branch it was tied to, and he wasn't quite sure that it would support her weight. "Jacquelyn."

She wasn't listening. She pushed off the rock that she'd climbed on with the rope and sailed over the lake. The wind whistled as she flew over the lake. Her hazel eyes looked down at the water beneath her. She could hear Darry calling her name, but she really wasn't listening, or paying attention. They was way too much noise going on in her head, and she didn't need the outside noise too. She closed her light eyes, trying to block out the sounds from her head, and the outside world, as she swung back and forth over the lake. The one sound that she did hear was a loud _snap_ followed by a dropping sensation. It all happened before she could even react to it. Before she knew it, she was underneath the surface of the lake. Water filling her ears. It was completely quiet there.

Not completely.

A splashing sound was nearing her. Honestly, she just wanted it to go away. There was a pulling on her arm, and then she was above the surface of the lake; gasping for air and pushing her dark hair from her eyes. The pulling on her arm didn't stop until she felt solid ground beneath her.

"What did you think you were doing?" Darry shouted from beside her.

"What?" she replied.

"You not coming up," he clarified.

She was quiet for a long moment as she watched the ripples in the lake calm. When the lake had returned to its undisturbed glass like state, she looked up away at the sky. "My dad said that he hated me because I said that I didn't know how to help him," she told Darry. She pulled her knees to her chest and placed her forehead on her knees and sighed. "I help everyone, and when I need to help someone; I can't. I cannot do anything to help him," her voice broke. "I can't help him and he hates me for it."

Jacquelyn wasn't much of a crier. She wasn't much of anything but optimistic and bubbly. So it was easy for one to forget that she was human and that she had other emotions. Darry had seem her cry all of nine or ten times in the three years that they were together, and the majority of those were right at the end of their relationship. The first when she walked in on her father and his mistress. The second when he sat the family down to admit to the affair. The third when she found out his parents were dead. The fourth when he broke up with her. The others were just miscellaneous teenage girl things.

Darry moved towards her, lifting her chin from her knees. She tucked her body against his, and his arm found its way around her body. His fingers ran through her dark brown hair, slowly as to not pull out any knots. He could feel her tears on his neck. He literally could not handle her crying, it wasn't her nature to cry. It wasn't until she started gasping for air that he had to stop her. He took her face in his hands and forced her hazel eyes to meet his. "Jacquelyn," he said to her as calmly as he could. "Jacquelyn." Her light eyes flicked over to his and he held her gaze. "You gotta breath." Easier said than done. Her chest rose and fell at the same rate. "Jacquelyn," he tried again. "Breath." There was no change. "Jacquelyn, babe, stop." That might have done it. Her hazel eyes still looked frenzied, but her breath started to slow. He watched as the rise and fall of her chest started to slow. Her hazel eyes started lose their frenzied look.

"I'm sorry," she said after she'd regained her composure. She looked down, her wet hair dripping on to her chest and down her back. When she looked up, she pushed her wet hair to one side of her neck and wrung it out, the water staining the sand beside her. Darry stood up and grabbed her sweater and then brought it back to her. "Thank you."

Darry sat next to her as the moon rose above the lake. She'd tucked her body under his arm; his warmth warming her. He watched the rippled silvery reflection on the lake before speaking to her. "You don't have to take care of your father. He's not your responsibility. You're his and he clearly didn't do a good job at taking care of you, so you don't have to feel guilty. He doesn't hate you either, Jacquelyn. He just said that because he knew it would break you." When she shivered against him, he sighed. "Let's go." He pulled her up and pushed her dark hair from her forehead, before he kissed her there. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

Without another word, he started towards the driver's side of the car, letting her know that he knew that she as in no condition to drive and that he was driving. She made her way to the passenger side and hopped into the car. Darry pulled away from the lake and back on to the main road. The brunette rolled down the window, letting the cool night breeze dry her hair as they drove. Her light eyes focused up on the moon as it disappeared behind the trees and reappeared. Her attention was brought back to the car when she faintly heard a familiar song on the radio. A smile spread across her face as she reached over and turned the radio up.

"Do you believe in magic, in a young girl's heart? How the music can free her, whenever it starts, and it's magic, if the music is groovy, it makes you feel happy like an old-time movie. I'll tell you about the magic and it'll free your soul, but it's like tryin' to tell a stranger 'bout rock and roll," the brunette belted out of the window.

Jacquelyn was by no means a singer. She might have been able to talk herself into believing that she was a beautiful shower singer. However, anywhere outside of the shower, she was only decent. She knew how to stay in key and hold a note, but she was by no means a singer. That didn't stop her from singing though. It didn't stop her from belting out the lyrics at the top of her lungs as she danced in the car.

For some reason, as she belted out the lyrics to the song, Darry couldn't help but believe in magic. When she got in the car, she wasn't half as energetic, or happy, as she was now. Then suddenly this song about magic and music setting you free when it starts comes on, and then she was dancing and singing. Or maybe he believed for another reason. Maybe it was magic that brought Jacquelyn into his life. Her father could have been transferred anywhere, but he came here, and if he magic brought her to him then maybe it brought her back to him as well. Maybe he did believed in magic.

"Hey!" she shouted to him over the fading song. He turned his eyes towards her briefly. "What are you thinking about?"

"You," he confessed.

Her cheeks flushed a light pink as she ducked her head. When she looked up, her hazel eyes were curious. "What about me?"

Darry shrugged and smiled over at her. "Thinking about your awful singing," he teased.

"Darry," she exclaimed as she hit his arm lightly.

The man laughed as he flicked on the blinker and turned. "I'm kidding," he said to her. The man looked over at the brunette beside him. The light pink color still gracing her cheek and her hazel eyes still held a level of curiousness. The man pulled into a parking lot and pulled the car into park. When he looked up, he realized that he was sitting in the parking lot near the football stadium at The University of Tulsa.

"You miss it?" she questioned as she looked at the stadium lights above them.

"Everyday."

The brunette looked over at him. "Did you miss me?" she questioned, her hazel eyes gaining more curiosity.

Darry looked over at her from the corner of his eye. Her hazel eyes meet his. "Everyday," he echoed, before he leaned over and pressed his lips to hers briefly. She touched her nose to his as his fingers tangled in her tangled hair. "Did you miss me?"

"Terribly," she responded in a faux southern accent. His lips touched her again, brushing against them gently. She leaned back against the seat and a question came to the front of her mind. She'd been trying to push it from the front of her mind, keeping it in the back, but it would always come back. "Dare?"

"Yeah?" he answered.

She twisted a stand of her wet hair around her finger. "What are we?" she finally questioned. She could see his eyebrow arch and she continued to twist her hair around her finger. She looked down before continuing. "Miss. Newton asked me where we romantically involved. I told her yes, but I just don't know. You said that timing was bad and that there were a lot of factors going into life."

"I guess I did," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. Darry was quiet for a long moment. "You were one of the factors. You've always been a factor. I just needed to figure out where you fit into the puzzle," he told her.

"Did you?"

"You're here, aren't you?" he questioned. "I shouldn't have said that to you, about it being poor timing. It just seemed easier than dealing with things."

"Things?"

He ran his hands over his face and sighed. "You're full of questions tonight, aren't you?" She looked down at her capris as she waited for his answer. "It was easier than having to deal with the way I feel around you." When he saw her mouth open, he shook his head. "You know that I don't do this, Jacquelyn. I'm not one for words. I know that you want me to be, but I'm just not."

"Try?" she pushed. This was something that she needed to hear.

Darry exhaled and opened the car door. He stepped outside and pushed the door shut behind him. He pressed his back against the car door, and sighed. Jacquelyn hopped out of the car, the cool night air chilling her to the bone, and walked around to his side of the car. His thumbs hooked in the belt loops of his own jeans and his blue-green eyes looking upward towards the sky.

"I feel around you," he told her quietly. "Not just angry or frustrated or worried or concerned. I feel happy and hopeful. I feel like things will be okay when you're around." He looked down into her light hazel eyes. "I mean, you know how I feel about you, right? It hasn't changed none."

Jacquelyn knew how he felt about her. She felt it when he touched her, when he kissed her. She felt it when he looked into her hazel eyes. She felt it when he would sweep her hair from her eyes. She felt it all the time. It wasn't the same though. She wanted to hear it. She didn't need to hear it every single day, she didn't need to hear it every hour. She just wanted to hear it. "You know how I feel about you. I told you."

"Jacquelyn," he groaned as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Nothing has changed."

"Say it," she told him a she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Jacquelyn, why say it? I show you all the time," he told her.

He did. He showed her all the time, but showing wasn't the same as saying. Her dark eyebrow arched as she shifted her weight to her right hip. "So then just say it." When he looked away from her, she groaned loudly, and started to walk away from him. If he wasn't man enough to say it, then maybe she'd made a bad choice.

Darry reached out and grabbed her wrist gently, and pulled her back to him. The brunette stumbled into his chest and looked away from him. He lifted her chin and caught her hazel eyes with his cobalt ones. "Jacquelyn," he started slowly. What was he so afraid of? If he loved her as fiercely as he felt he did, why didn't he just say it to her? Maybe it was because everyone he loved was slowly falling out of his life. His parents had died. Johnny was dead. Dallas was dead. He didn't want to lose her too. Granted, he'd lost her once already, and that coupled with everything else nearly broke him. Could he handle losing her again? He decided that he couldn't. "I love you." He exhaled slowly, allowing the words to settle.

The brunette had her lips pressed to his before he could even think of what to say next. Her fingers tangling in his brown hair. Her chest pressed against his. His hands on either side of her face. His heart racing under his shirt as her lips moved against his. A chill ran down her body in the cool night breeze.

"You're gonna get sick," Darry told her in a low voice.

Another chill ran though her, and this time it wasn't because of the night air. "I won't." She tilted her head up to his, her lips brushing against his. Another chill ran thought her body.

"You're going home," he told her his voice equally as low as it had been.

"Fine," she told him. She started back to her side of the car and when she put her hand on the door she looked over at him. "Hey," she called. He looked over at her. "I love you too."

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**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own the lyrics to _Do You Believe in Magic_, I used The Lovin' Spoonful's lyrics.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **Hey there! So I saw that a few people thought that Jacquelyn's actions at the lake where excessive, let me try to explain. It all make sense to me, because I'm in Jacquelyn's head. Firstly, she was never contemplating suicide. The rope swing was just an escape from the noise in her head. Honestly, she just needed quiet. I had written her surfacing on her own, but Darry saving her seemed fluffier. As far as her overreacting, think about her character. She goes out of her way to help everyone she meets, and now she can't help someone who really needs her help. Not just anyone, her father. It kinda stings. Anyhow, just some food for thought and stuff. Anyways, thanks for the reviews and all that jazz. I love reading them in my email. It makes me smile. So keep reviewing.

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The next morning, she woke up sneezing. She groaned and she fell back against the pillow; sniffling as she did. From beside her, she heard a chuckle that vibrated the bed. The brunette pulled the pillow over her face and groaned again. The chuckle morphed into a full laugh, and she felt Darry roll over and press his lips to her shoulder. She mumbled something under the pillow, and he continued to laugh. Feed up with his laughing, she tossed the pillow at his head.

"Tea or coffee?" he asked as he rolled out of bed. She sneezed again. "Tea."

The brunette rolled over onto her stomach and folded her arms under her forehead. Sick was something that she didn't get. She hated being sick. Hopefully, it wouldn't last too long. Hopefully, it would just roll over and she'd be fine later.

When she heard footsteps approaching the bedroom, she buried her head under the sheet. She really didn't want to be the butt of Darry's jokes at the moment. However, she realized that there footsteps didn't belong to Darry, they were much too light.

"Jac?"

The brunette poked her head from under the blankets to see a sad eyed Sodapop Curtis. She then pulled the pillow from Darry's side of the bed and placed it behind her as she sat up. When she'd completed her action, Soda handed her the steaming cup of tea that he'd been holding. He then picked up the pillow from the floor and placed it on the bed.

"Thank you," she muttered before sipping on the beverage in her hands. "You wanna talk?"

"That's why I came to you," Soda told her. "But if you aren't feeling up to it…"

"Nonsense!" she exclaimed as she patted the spot on the bed beside her. "Have a seat, kid."

Soda lazily moved onto the bed and relaxed back into the pillow behind her. She watched him from the corner of her eye as he pulled a letter from his pocket. His sad eyes were trained to the return address, with a frown on his face. Patiently, she sipped on her tea as she waited for him to speak. Instead, he just kept turning the letter over in his hands. "Sorry, I'm just not really sure where to start."

"The beginning is fine," she told him, before she sneezed. As she spoke, Darry poked his head into the room, his eyebrow arched at the sight before him. "What's up?"

"I'm gonna go put in a few hours at the site," he told her as he leaned against the doorframe. "You need anything?" The brunette shook her head and held up the cup of tea, in a silent thank you, he bowed his head in acceptance of her thank you. "Soda, don't stay too long."

"Be careful," she called after him in a singsong voice.

"Yeah, yeah," he said as he started down the hallway.

After the door closed, Jacquelyn turned her eyes over to Soda, who seemed to be lost in thought. "So the beginning."

A sad smile played on his lips. "You remember my girlfriend, Sandy?" he questioned. Jacquelyn bit her lip as she thought back. "Blond, blue eyes, real sweet girl," he described. The brunette nodded. She vaguely remembered her. "Well, she got pregnant." The cup of tea almost slipped form her fingers, but before she could scold the young man sitting next to her he shook his head. "It ain't mine. She'd been cheating on me." Jacquelyn frowned. What type of woman would it take to cheat on Soda? "Anyways, she moved to Florida, to live with her Grandma. She wrote me and said that she'd miscarried."

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"It's fine, it wasn't mine," he said angrily.

"Why are you so upset about it if it wasn't yours?" She coughed and rubbed the back of her hand over her nose.

"I was gonna marry her, Jac. When she told me, I was ready to marry her. Then she told me that it wasn't mine, and I still wanted to marry her."

Jacquelyn's eyebrow lifted. "Why?"

"Because I loved her," he stated as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. "I loved her so much that I was willing to look past all her faults," he rambled. "I was gonna marry her and she went and fucked some other guy."

"Soda, love is a two-way street," she told him. "They gotta love you back. You can love someone as much as you want, and you can love them 'til it hurts, but it only works if they love you back."

"What if everyone's not as luck as you?" Soda questioned, anger still in his voice.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Not everyone is as lucky as you and Darry," he said again. "Not everyone can just find someone that loves them as much as they do. There aren't a lot of girls like you, Jac. There aren't a lot of girls that want to be with someone without wanting anything in return."

Jacquelyn put the cup of tea on the bedside table and cleared her throat. "So then you keep looking for a girl like that." Soda scoffed. "What did her letter say?" she questioned as she pointed at it. She turned and sneezed into her elbow.

"That she had miscarried. That she realized what a mistake she'd made when she cheated on me, and that she wants to come back and try again, us being together." Soda looked over at the brunette next to him, and all the anger in his eyes melted away. "What I am supposed to do? Jac, I love this girl, but she broke my heart." He looked over her head. "What am I supposed to tell her?"

"Do you want her to come back?" she questioned.

"Yes."

"Is it a good idea for her to come back? I mean, do you think that she'll do the same thing or something different?"

"Do I think she'll cheat on me again?" Soda questioned as his eyes focused on her. Jacquelyn nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"Can you handle that? Knowing that every time you see her, you'll think she was cheating?"

"No." He was quiet for a while. "I love her, but I don't want her to come back. It'll hurt too much."

Jacquelyn settled back into the pillows before coughing into her forearm. "Well, tell her how you feel, but then tell her that you don't want her to come back because it won't be the same or because it won't work."

Soda was quiet for a long moment. "When you left, Darry was a wreck," he started out of nowhere. "I know that there were a lot of factors that went into that breakup, but he was a wreck. He would watch the phone, and start writing letters to you, and then just ball them up and throw them in the trash. One day, I read them, just to see. They all said something along the lines of, 'Jacquelyn, I'm sorry'. Then he'd throw them away. He was alone. His friends stopped talking to him. There was something missing from him. Whatever it was that made him human was gone. He was just a shadow of who he used to be for the longest. Then I guess he just got used to it." Soda shrugged.

"Why are you telling me this?" Jacquelyn asked.

"Because we you came back," he started, "he started to be himself again. You were missing. Without you Darry is just a rule following, strict, hard ass." Jacquelyn chuckled. "He's been more himself since you've been here."

"What does that have to do with you and Sandy?" she questioned as she looked over into his brown eyes.

"Hmm?" Soda hummed. "Nothing, I guess. I just, I'm glad that you came back, that's all." Jacquelyn lowered her eyebrows at him as he sat beside her. "Well, I don't want her to be my only view of love. I don't want every time I see a girl that makes my heart race, for my thoughts to go to her. I don't want her to be the only person I ever loved."

"You don't want her to define love for you?" she asked attempting to clarify his words.

"I don't want her to ruin love for me. You and I both know that Darry would never love someone like he loves you." The brunette shrugged as she looked at him. "I don't want her to be the only person I love. It was good for a first love, until I found out she was cheating on me. But I know that there's someone else for me, that's not her." Soda was quiet for a long moment, before clearing his throat. He looked awful embarrassed. "So just tell her that I'm done being sad over her. That she messed up. I can't tell her not to come here, but I don't want to see her," he said in an attempt to steer the conversation from the depths of his thoughts and back to the surface.

"Are you done being sad over her?"

Soda sat looking into her hazel eyes, as if the answer were there, for a long time. He then turned his gaze downward and sighed. "I think so. I'm ready to just get over her. There's so many girls here, beautiful ones, and every time I see them, my chest hurts and I just get angry."

"Closure."

"What?"

"Write the letter for closure," she told him. "Tell her how you feel and how she hurt you. You never got to tell her that, so tell her. When you send it, you should feel better."

"What if I don't?" he asked as he wrung the letter in his hands.

"You will." The young man sat next to her without saying anything verbally, but she knew that there was something that he wanted to ask her. "What's on your mind?" she questioned as she grabbed her warm tea cup.

"How did it happen?" Soda asked as she brought the cup of tea to her lips. When she arched her eyebrow for clarification. "How did y'all break up?"

"He didn't tell you?" she questioned.

"He just said that he regretted what happened, but what was done was done," he told her. Jacquelyn was quiet for a moment. "You don't have to tell me."

"No, I was just trying to remember."

_The brunette climbed to the top of the stands at The University of Tulsa's football stadium. The wind tangling in her dark brown hair as she walked up to the man sitting in the stands. She sat beside him gently and placed her backpack on the ground next to her feet. Her hazel eyes looked over the football field in front of her. The lines were from the first game were still there. The numbers on the yard lines were still perfect on the field._

"_I thought that I'd find you here," she said._

"_Yeah."_

_The breeze tousled her hair as it blew by. "You know you can't detach yourself from society." He looked over at her pointedly. "I mean, you can't stop living because you lose someone."_

"_They were my parents, Jacquelyn! My fucking parents. I think I have the right to morn." The girl flinched at his works. She hadn't meant that he didn't have the right to morn. "What does it matter to you?"_

_Jacquelyn looked hurt. "I loved your parents too," she told him. _

"_They weren't your parents. You still have your parents," he spat._

_The brunette through her hands in the air. "My family is falling apart. My father is having an affair, and my mother won't speak to me."_

"_At least you still have your father."_

_She realized that she wasn't going to get anywhere with him in this argument. He was right, though. She did still have her family. "What can I do?"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_What can I do to help you?"_

"_Nothing."_

_They were quiet again. Her light eyes watching him. His elbows were on his knees and his chin was cradled in his hands. His blue-green eyes focused out on the field in front of them. She pulled her sweater closer to her body as another breeze blew through the stadium. _

"_I can't do this," he told her quietly. She looked over at him, hoping that this was him opening up to her. However, when she did she saw that it was the exact opposite. He was looking away from her as he spoke. _

"_What can't you do?" she question slowly, afraid of the answer._

"_I can't have you-"_

_She pushed away from him and stood up. "No, you're just saying that. You're just saying that because you're frustrated and confused. You don't mean that."_

"_Jacquelyn," he called to her without looking at her. However, the way that he said her name willed her to look at him. _

"_No."_

"_Jacquelyn."_

"_No!"_

_For some reason, she felt as if she said it louder then he would stop trying to say what he wanted to say. He didn't mean it. He couldn't have meant it. She'd been trying all week to get to him and to talk to him and to be there for him. And now he was just gonna do this?_

_The girl grabbed her backpack and turned away from him. He then reached out and grabbed her arm, turning her to face him. When she looked up into his cobalt eyes, she could see that this wasn't what he wanted. This was the last thing that he wanted. Yet, he was doing it. The brunette felt his thumb run across her cheek, brushing away tears that she didn't even know she'd been crying._

"_Don't," she begged as she looked down at the space between them. _

_Darry exhaled slowing. His heart aching. This was so far from what he wanted. There were plans for them. He wanted to marry her. He wanted her to be a part of his life. However, that life, the life they would have lived together, was gone now. He had to make a new one, and he didn't quiet see how she was going to fit into it. He'd tried to place her in, but ever choice seemed to lead to ruining her life. He couldn't do that to her. _

"_Jacquelyn, please. It's hard enough."_

_The brunette rocked back on her heels and pushed her dark hair from her eyes. "You need me, and I need you. Especially right now. Everything is falling apart. We need each other."_

"_I need to focus on my family," he told her. "I can't drag you down into this."_

_Jacquelyn nodded; she understood, but she didn't want to. "Say it."_

_Darry looked down into her hazel eyes, he ran his hand over his face. "Don't make me do that," he told her. _

"_I need you to say it," she told him._

_Darry was quiet for a long moment. He touched her waist and she crumbled into his chest. Her hands fisting against the fabric of his shirt. His arms wrapping around her waist. He hadn't expected it to be like this. He'd honestly expected to tell her and then watch her walk away. He hadn't expected her to fight with him or cling to him. He didn't expect it to be this hard. He didn't expect to cling to her this way. He took a small step back and lifted her chin. He swept her tears from her cheeks and his blue-green eyes met her wet hazel ones. He inhaled slowly, taking in the citrus scent that always accompanied her. "Jacquelyn, I have to break up with up."_

_She noted how it wasn't 'I __**want**__ to break up with you'. It was **have**. He **had** to break up with her. For some reason, she felt a little better about it. He didn't want to. She twisted out of his grasp, and let go of his shirt as she nodded. She took a step back and turned away from him. "Oh," she said quietly. "I guess this works out."_

"_What do you mean?" he replied in an equally quiet voice._

"_I was coming to tell you that my mother wants to move us back to Wisconsin. She thinks that taking him away from the mistress will change things. I was coming to talk to you about how we were gonna do this long distance thing, but it's a non-issue now." She turned back to him and kissed him softly. Savoring what was more than likely going to be their last kiss. "I'll leave you my number and address so you can call if you need anything. I'm always here for you."_

* * *

The brunette drifted off to sleep a few minutes after Soda left the room. He said that he hadn't imagined it going down that way. When she asked how he thought had happen, he shrugged and said that he was sure that there was some yelling involved. She laughed. She hadn't every really thought about yelling at him. Although she was no longer particularly intimidated by Darry's size, she wasn't about you yell at a man that size. She flashed him a smile when he stood up, saying that Darry told him not to stay for too long. The brunette dismissed him and told him that she was here if he needed anything. He smiled, ruffled her hair, and then left the room.

When she woke up, it was almost two. She groaned and rolled over. She wasn't feeling all that bad anymore. Her throat felt better and she wasn't sneezing as much. The brunette ran her fingers through her hair, in an attempt to have it do something other than look a mess, as she stood up and made her way out of the bedroom. She stopped by the bathroom, and grabbed placed toothpaste on her toothbrush, because she just could go another second without cleaning her teeth. She entered the living room to see Darry in his recliner with the paper in his hands and Soda and Steve playing cards at the living room table.

"What are you doing, Jacquelyn?" Darry said without looking up from the paper.

"Joining the world of the living," she told him through the toothpaste foaming in her mouth.

"That's a cute look for you, Ross," Steve told her with a smirk on his face.

"Only for you, Stevie boy," she shoot back.

Before Steve could respond, Soda had launched a handful of cards at him in frustration. Soda crossed her arms over his chest before tossing another handful of cards at him. "You're cheating!" Soda accused. "Cheating, Steve." Steve laughed fully at the accusation. "'S not funny."

Jacquelyn turned on her heel and made her way back to the bathroom to rid herself of the toothpaste in her mouth. She then rinsed her mouth and made her way back to the living room. Steve and Soda were rolling on the floor, wrestling, as Soda accused continued to accuse him of cheating.

"Dare?" Jacquelyn looked over her shoulder at Ponyboy, who she hadn't actually heard from all day. Ponyboy looked up at her, as Darry looked over the newspaper in front of him. "You should take a brush to that mane." Jacquelyn scoffed as she turned on her heel and stormed away from the boys. Darry laughed at her retreat before acknowledging Ponyboy.

"Better?" the brunette growled when she reappeared.

"Much," came Ponyboy's reply as he looked over at her.

The brunette sat down on the arm of the recliner as she ran her fingers through her dark hair. Darry shifted in the chair and she slipped from the arm and on to his lap. The bend of her knees over one arm of the chair and her back pressed against the other.

"So Ponyboy wants to learn to drive," Darry told her as he brought the paper back up in front of his eyes.

"Really?" the brunette asked, her hazel eyes excited. However, after a moment, she frowned. "Why are you telling me?" Steve and Soda chuckled, and the brunette looked at them from the side of the newspaper. "Darry?"

"Well, I was thinking that you could teach him. You have patience of a saint," Darry mused as he turned the page. The chuckling between the two seventeen year-olds increased. "Patience of a saint," Darry repeated.

The brunette rolled her light eyes and leaned back, her shoulder against Darry chest. He chuckled and the sound vibrated her arm. "Fine," she told him. Steve and Soda stopped laughing and Darry lowered the newspaper. Ponyboy's grey eyes brightened as he looked at her. "I'll teach him, but we are using your truck."

Darry looked down at her, his eyebrow arched. "Well played, Miss. Ross. Well played."

* * *

**A/N: **So did anyone happen to catch the book quote? I figured that Darry needed to have heard it from someone. Hope you enjoyed.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** Hey there! Here's the next chapter. I really hope that you guys love this chapter. I'm gonna start updating once a week, just because I've got school and other commitments and all that jazz. Thank you all for the reviews. I'm glad that y'all like that Jacquelyn told gave Darry that 'You can't stop living because you lose someone' line. I spent a lot of time thinking about that line and like trying to see if I wanted Jacquelyn to give him that advice or not. Glad I made the right choice. Anyway, enjoy this chapter.

**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own _The Outsiders_.

* * *

"You are late," Gina Fields told the brunette was she ran into the record store. The brunette rolled her light eyes in acknowledgement as she darted to the back room to clock in, only three minutes late. When Jacquelyn turned around, Gina was standing right behind her with her hands on her hips. Gina tapped her foot as Jacquelyn sighed. "What were you doing?"

No matter how hard the brunette tried, she could not stop the smile that spread on her lips. She rocked back on her heel and looked at her blond friend from under her eyelashes. She bit her bottom lip and ran her fingers through her thick dark hair. Her face was absolutely glowing. Her eyes were brighter. Her skin had cleared dramatically since her first day back at work two and a half weeks ago. What was once a giant purple mark was now a faded yellow one, and it was nearly gone.

"What have you been doing?" Perhaps rewording there question would help her get a response. However, Jacquelyn's cheeks blushed a light pink and she pushed her hands into her pockets. She looked down trying to hide her smile, but it had nearly taken over her face by this point. "Darrel?" Gina questioned with a smirk on her lips.

Jacquelyn looked over into her friend's baby blue eyes and laughed. "Go away," she teased as she tried to duck under her friend's arm to get out of the back room. Gina was not budging. "What?"

"You got another love bite," Gina mused as she looked at Jacquelyn's neck. "Right, there." The blond pushed aside her friend's dark brown hair and touched the red mark on her neck. "It's fresh."

"What of it?" the brunette asked as she swatted Gina's hand away from her neck. Gina said nothing, it was just a matter of time. A matter of time until the brunette across from her cracked and told her everything she needed to know. After a moment, Jacquelyn laughed, as she touched the mark on her neck. "I don't know what it is," she started as she picked up a box and made her way to the entrance of the backroom. Gina stepped aside, feeling secure that Jacquelyn was going to keep talking. "I feel like we are kids, Gina," she told her as she started placing records on the shelves.

"Can't keep his hands off you?" Gina questioned as she walked up beside her, assisting in placing records on the shelves.

The brunette laughed and shook her head. "Not that." She paused, both her sentence and her actions. "Well, yeah that too." The blond beside her laughed, and she swatted her arm with a plastic covered record to make her stop. "Not just that, just everything."

"Young and in love."

"I guess you can say it like that," Jacquelyn said with shrugged. She propped the box against the wall between her outer thigh. "I think that we're just kind of reveling in the fact that we have this second chance." She thought a moment. "He drove me to work this morning," she told her, letting her voice trail off.

"And?" Gina pushed.

"That's where that mark came from," the brunette revealed. Gina whooped with laugher and Jacquelyn face turned red again. "It's not funny." Gina laughed even louder. "Stop it."

"Did you leave him with anything?" Gina asked with a wink. Embarrassed, Jacquelyn took the box to the back room to get away from Gina. As she walked away, Gina's laughter resumed. "Hey, honey," the blond called after the brunette's re treating figure. "Your sweater is on inside out."

In response, Jacquelyn reached back to touch her shirt. Feeling the tag, she darted into the back room, but not before give Gina a less than ladylike gesture. Gina's response was laughter, as the brunette tugged her sweater off and turned it right side in.

* * *

The day continued just as it had started. Gina spent her time teasing the brunette behind the counter and making inappropriate gestures and doing equally inappropriate action behind the customer's backs. The brunette tried her best to ignore her, and it seemed to be working. Until Gina ducked under the counter, and started to whisper into her ear. The brunette became flustered, giving incorrect change and stumbling over her words. Finally, Jacquelyn managed to push the blond away from her and to the other side of the counter.

"I want to meet him," Gina announced as she leaned against the counter. She'd just turned the 'open' sign to 'closed' and locked the front door. Jacquelyn looked up from the dollar bills in her hand, continuing to mouth the numbers as she looked at her friend. Gina pushed a nickel around on the counter before she spoke again. "I mean, if he's gonna be marking up your body and all," this comment did what it was supposed to do, caused Jacquelyn to blush, "I wanna meet him." Gina watched as the hazel eyed woman placed the ones back in the register, wrote down how many there were, and took the nickel from under Gina's finger. She then started on the fives. "Are you going to say anything?" Again, Jacquelyn's hazel eyes met her blue ones, as she continued to count money. When Jacquelyn finished the fives, there were only six, Gina reached over and closed the register, almost closing Jacquelyn's fingers in it. "Talking to you."

"I'm working," the brunette answered as she went to open the resister again. When she did, Gina closed it. She placed her hands on the counter and look at the clock. "He'll be here at six," she said, her tone slightly exasperated. "You may meet him then." Gina did some sort of anxious dance and in response the brunette slowly opened the register. "It's all of three minutes."

"Ten," Gina corrected as she looked over at the clock. "Do I look okay?"

Jacquelyn looked up from the quarters in her hand. "What are you trying to do?" The blond was pursing her lips and leaning against the counter. Suddenly, the brunette felt oddly insecure. There was this curvy blond pursing her lips and leaning against the counter. Then there was her. She wasn't not curvy, but when put next to Gina, she might as well be a beanpole. Gina's eyes popped under her thick makeup. If Jacquelyn did anything more than eyeliner and a light amount of mascara it didn't look right, she couldn't quite pull it off. Gina's blond hair was always perfectly curled. If the brunette even waned to attempt to curl her hair, she would have to start a week before the event. Instead, she just kept it straight. She hadn't realized that she was nowhere near as beautiful as Gina. Not until she asked. Jacquelyn rocked back on her heels and bit her lip. "You look fine." She watched as Gina adjusted her sweater. It was the same sweater that Jacquelyn was wearing, but it looked completely different on her. Gina managed to fill the sweater out to its fullest. Jacquelyn wasn't that lucky, granted she was luckier than most but not as lucky as Gina in the breast department.

Gina pushed away from the counter and unlocked the door. Had her hips always swayed that way? Jacquelyn closed her hand around the quarters and sighed. Her hazel eyes looked upwards as she tried to relax her hand and tug her thoughts from Gina. Gina swayed to the back room, singing some something or other. Slowly, the brunette went back to counting the quarters in her hand.

"Hey," his voice said to her as he leaned against the counter. A smile played on Jacquelyn's lips as she looked up at him from under her eyelashes and continued to count. "Almost done?"

Jacquelyn nodded as she continued counting. "Gimmie… one… second," she dropped the quarters into the drawer. She then moved so that she was standing across from him and leaning on the counter as well. The brunette leaned across the counter as he leaned down towards her.

"Jacquelyn," Gina called to her as she walked from the back room. The brunette rolled her eyes and looked over towards her friend. "I-" Gina looked up at the two in front of her. "Oh."

The brunette ducked her head, hiding her blush. "Gina, Darrel. Darrel, Gina," she introduced as she watched Gina sway over to Darry.

"Hey," Gina said as she came to a stop in front of him, pushing her right hip out and extending her right hand. "It's nice to meet you!" The smile on her lips was bright as she looked up at him. Jacquelyn gripped the edge of the counter tightly as Darry shook Gina's hand.

"The pleasure's mine."

What did that mean? The pleasure was his. Her eyes narrowed as she watched the scene before her. They we still talking, but she was not longer listening. She was just watching the body language. Gina was leaning towards him and laughing. Then Gina's blue eyes were on her and she had no clue what was going on.

"Jacquelyn," she said to her.

"Hmm?" the brunette replied shortly, focusing on the space between them.

"What are you doing?" Gina asked gesturing to her hands.

Jacquelyn released the counter from her death grip, flexing her fingers to get the blood flowing again. Darry caught her gaze, his blue-green eyes questioning. The brunette looked away, her eyes focusing on the space between Darry and Gina. "Nothing, nothing," she replied distantly.

"Okay," Gina said slowly her eyebrows lowered in confusion. "Anyway, I just wanted to meet you because you Jacquelyn here can't stop talking about you."

The brunette rolled her eyes as she opened the resister and pulled the drawer out. She ducked under the counter and made her way to the manager's office. She could hear Gina still talking about something or other as she unlocked the then office door. Jacquelyn quickly opened the drawer on the desk were she stored the cash register drawer, slipped the cash register drawer in to the desk, shut the desk drawer and locked it.

"You played football," Gina was saying as she walked back to the two. Darry was nodding, a smile on his face. If anything, Gina knew how to find exactly what someone wanted to talk about. "In high school?" Darry nodded. "That's awesome." Jacquelyn leaned her back against the counter between the two and brushed her hair behind her ear. "What did you do in high school, Jacquelyn?"

"Nothing," the brunette answered after a moment.

"That's a lie," Darry said.

"What did you do?" Gina asked as she bounced on her toes.

"Uh, tennis," the brunette said as she ducked her head.

"Tennis?" the blond asked. She arched her light eyebrow and scrunched her nose.

"What?"

"Tennis? I can't see you playing tennis. I can't even see you in a skirt," Gina laughed.

"She was pretty good," Darry supplied.

Gina continued to laugh and Jacquelyn scrunched her nose as she looked up at an Elvis poster on the wall. "That's funny. It's such a rich girl sport and you're not a rich girl."

"Thank you."

"Aw, I'm just yankin' your chain," Gina teased as she brushed her hair over her shoulders. "I'll see you tomorrow, J. Darrel it was real nice to meet you. Don't be a stranger."

Jacquelyn nodded as she pulled the keys from her pocket. "We're leaving too. Ready?" she questioned to Darry as she started towards the door. He nodded as he stepped in front of her to pull the door open. The brunette slipped out of the store, Gina behind her. When Darry closed the door, she slipped the key into the locked and locked the door swiftly. Once she turned around, she saw that Darry was climbing into his truck and Gina was standing behind her with her arms crossed over her chest.

"What's wrong with you?" Gina questioned. "You were acting like I was going to up and steal your boyfriend." Jacquelyn looked down finding something very interesting with her shoes. "Christ, Jacquelyn," the blond laughed. "Wow! Look, he's good-looking, but I don't even think that he noticed me." Jacquelyn snorted. "I'm serious. That boy only has eyes for you."

Jacquelyn rocked back on her heels and sighed. Maybe she was being a little oversensitive and overreacting. Maybe she was right. A smiled played on her lips. Gina probably was right. She was always right. "Alright, I'm sorry," the brunette told her. "I'm being silly."

"Yes, yes you are," Gina teased as she started backing away from the brunette. "Now go and enjoy your boyfriend."

The brunette looked over at her friend and frowned. Boyfriend. For some reason that word seemed odd. When Gina had said it before, it just kind of went over her head, but now she was really thinking about it. She hadn't ever really thought about them as being like that. However, that's what they were. She was his girlfriend, and he was her boyfriend. "Alright, yeah. Goodnight."

"Hey," the blond called as the brunette started to walk towards the truck. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"That borders on nothing," the brunette teased before jumping into the car of the truck. "See ya'," she called from the safety of the cab as the blond flicked her a rude gesture.

After waiting for Gina to get into her car and pull out of the lot, Darry back out of the parking space and pulled out on to street. The brunette relaxed back into the passenger side seat of the truck and inhaled deeply. The scent of warm tar fill her nose. She closed her light eyes allowing the scent to engulf her. Darry looked over at her in the rearview and the corners of his lips involuntarily turned up. He could see her physically trying to relax, and for the most part she was succeeding. However, no matter how hard she tried she could not manage to relax her eyebrows. He reached over and ran his thumb along the wrinkles in her forehead. One of her hazel eyes snapped open as she watched him.

"What's wrong today?" he questioned as if it were typical for something to grate her nerves.

The brunette was suddenly embarrassed and self-conscious. She attempted to sink back into the seat and disappear. It was until he'd questioned her that she really realized how stupid her train of thought had been. She cleared her throat. "Nothing."

He looked at her from the corner of his eye. "Well, I know what's wrong, I just wanna see if you're going to tell me."

"Why do I have to tell you if you know," Jacquelyn groaned, burying her face in her hands. Darrel didn't comment he just waited until she wanted to talk. The brunette leaned her shoulder against the window. "I was jealous," she mumbled under her breath.

"Why?"

"Did you not see her?" the brunette asked, her hands making the hourglass shape

"I saw her."

"Well then that's why," Jacquelyn exclaimed, her face twisting on confusion. "What the heck do you mean why," she scoffed.

"I also saw you," he told her as he switched lanes, catching her eye in the rearview mirror. A blush crept over her cheeks.

"Yeah, and?" the brunette said as she looked away from his blue-green eyes.

"I saw you," he repeated as if that was going to change anything. The brunette willed herself to meet his gaze in the rear mirror.

He saw her. What was that supposed to mean? As her eyes watched his in the rearview, she realized what it mean. He saw her. Sure he'd seen Gina Fields. She was impossible to miss with her blond hair and blue eyes, but he saw her. He only saw her. Gina was right. He had looked at her, but he hadn't _looked_ at her. In the simplest terms, he only had eyes for her.

As the truck pulled to a stop in the driveway, Jacquelyn leaned against the window and looked over at him. "Well, that makes me feel better. Did you like her?"

"Gina?" he questioned.

"Yeah. Who else?"

"I think she's alright," he told her. Jacquelyn looked at him with her eyebrow arched. "What?"

"Anything else?" she pushed.

"She's the ugliest woman that I've ever met," he teased.

The brunette narrowed her hazel eyes and looked over at him. He was teasing her, yes. However, that was what she wanted him to say. She'd wanted him to say that, but she'd wanted it to be the truth. Yet, she knew that there was no way that anyone could looked at Gina Fields and think that she was the ugliest woman they had ever seen or anything near it.

"I don't like being teased," she told him.

He chuckled as he leaned across the seat and took her face in his hands, "Jacquelyn," he said to her, in a tone that forced her light eyes to look at him. "I saw her, she was pretty." The brunette's forehead creased. "And but then there's you." He kissed her softly, his lips just brushing against hers.

As she got out of the truck she realized what had just been said. Darry wasn't one for words. She never figured out of he wasn't comfortable with voicing his feelings or if he was because he didn't know how to say the things he wanted to say to her. He'd always hopped around what he wanted to say to her using metaphors and riddles. This time there wasn't a metaphor or a riddle. He had, in his own way, called her beautiful. And more beautiful than Gina Fields at that.

"What are you doing?"

She looked up at Darry, who was standing on the porch with the door open. He was watching with his eyebrow lifted. The brunette bounded over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He returned the hug with the arm that he wasn't using to hold the door open.

"Thank you," she said.

"You're welcome," he said.


End file.
